DRM Needs To Be Banned Because It’s Toxic

This is definitely a thought-provoking article. There seem to be two key points: (1) separation of concerns - the govt should decide and enforce what should be allowed or not, not private manufacturers and (2) what's profitable or good for business today is not necessarily what's good in the long run.

I'm ambivalent about (1), but I buy (2). Yes, we know that piracy might kill the music industry, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's a bad thing. Industries and jobs have been dying since the beginning of time. A hundred years ago in India, you could get a job as a "fan-operator" (loose translation from the Hindi term "pankha chalak" which literally means fan-driver.) The folks would sit outside govt offices and pull some mechanical levers which operated fans directed at the bigshots doing "real" work inside. I also remember reading some stories in my Hindi class lamenting the death of the fan-operator's profession. Oh the irony of a privileged middle-class writer complaining about an unskilled almost-demeaning job going out of existence!

On a unrelated note, I especially liked this part:

As a politician, I have other concerns than sound engineering and profitable businesses. It is my job — it is my damn responsibility — to take a larger view and look ahead, decades ahead, generations ahead.

It's a pity how few politicians we have today that actually work towards that goal.

Kind if like piracy? Yeah, we saw how well that worked out.