Walt Mossberg’s DRM Manifesto

DRM doesn’t have to be a dirty word, says Walt Mossberg — and he’d like media companies to remember that. The consumer-rights activists have a point and so do the companies that see DRM as protection from mass piracy. But they don’t have to be mutually exclusive, he warns: “Treating all consumers as potential criminals by using DRM to overly limit their activities is just plain wrong.”
Instead of prohibiting individuals from copying legally acquired material to every device they own or sharing in small quantities with family and friends, Mossberg suggests more liberal copyright laws from Congress for personal non-commercial use and an industry focus on the “serious pirates” Until then, consumers should boycott material like with over-reaching limits. “That would send the industry a message to use DRM more judiciously.”

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