Making the case against DRM

Cory Doctorow was invited by Microsoft Research to present his thoughts on DRM (Digital Rights Management) on the 17th of June. Cory believes that DRM is a concept that benefits The Man (the record company, the film studios, the big corporations) more than the customer and that violates every tenet of the "Customer is king" philosophy. Being an opponent of the DRM story and media licensing myself, I agree whole-heartedly with the views expressed in the presentation - the complete text of which is provided to the public domain sans copyright :here:.

Karan will be particularly interested in reading this piece and will rue the fact that he wasn't a member of the audience at the presentation (which I think he wasn't). This particular thought in the presentation struck a chord with me:

the worst of all the ideas embodied by DRM: that people who make record-players should be able to spec whose records you can listen to, and that people who make records should have a veto over the design of record-players.

More power to the people I say...