
DRM Needs To Be Banned Because It’s Toxic - ukdm
https://torrentfreak.com/drm-needs-to-be-banned-because-its-toxic-111016/
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microarchitect
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.

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tzs
I disliked "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".

He's describing the job of a science fiction writer, not the job of a
politician.

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rick888
Kind if like piracy? Yeah, we saw how well that worked out.

