Hacker News Reader

Comment by zelphirkalt | Hacker News Reader

> Well, yeah. Streaming services wouldn't exist without DRM. [...]

> [...] If we deleted DRM, streaming services would cease to exist overnight

And yet GOG exists and sells games all DRM free. To disprove a theory, one only needs to provide 1 counter example.

Maybe some streaming services would cease to exist. Maybe some of them are not needed. I highly doubt though, that it is an impossibility to have streaming services without DRM. I don't see how DRM helps at all. If I were a Netflix user, which I am not because of DRM and because it is shitty built to not work on Firefox on GNU/Linux and without installing shit on my machine, I could simply record my screen copying the content. Even if there was some software limiting this ability, I could use a hardware before the monitor to grab the video signal. DRM doesn't protect anything properly.

View on HN

It's there because the MAFIA insists, not because it makes sense. It doesn't prevent webrips, which exist. It drives away potential FOSS-using customers toward said webrips, lol.

So true. It's embarrassing how netflix still refuses to play high quality streams on linux. So I'll just head over to my favorite torrent site and grab it there, instead.

I think your priorities may be skewed. To me, supporting content creators (even though, yes, intermediaries take too big a cut) and respecting laws is more important than conveniently consuming entertainment on one's favorite operating system.

But is it right that I be forced to first support the makers of a closed operating system before I can support those content creators?

My priority is living my best life, not padding the pockets of others. I'll happily pay for stuff if I feel it's fair. But it's not.

Are you using some ethical framework to decide what's "fair" in this case, or are you just going with your gut?

I cannot remember a single instance where DRM stopped me from pirating but it certainly stopped me from buying. Mostly it was just the tip of the iceberg because I maybe don't care enough, but there are quite a few examples over the years. I am a buy and think later type for media. Positive side is that anything cultural is very cheap.

doesn't prevent web-dls either for that matter.

> And yet GOG exists and sells games all DRM free.

It is worth noting that GOG exists only because CDPR want it to and subsidise its costs from their other businesses due to their political beliefs.

As a standalone entity GOG would have ceased to exist overnight a long time ago. It's lack of DRM is definitely an argument to why it loses so much money.

Why would its primary defining feature be a definite argument why it loses money? Its lack of DRM is the only reason why I go there.

GOG isn’t a streaming model, it’s an iTMS model. The streaming model is where each title has no marginal cost after you pay the subscription fee, so you can just download the whole catalog.

The closer analogy would be to Xbox Game Pass, which has no marginal costs per title, but indeed does have DRM.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com