As consumers and producers we are smack dab in the middle of the Digital Rights Management conflict. It’s not like being between a rock and a hard place it’s more of a multi person Christmas hug with one of the people being Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation. We hardily embrace the fact that DRM allows us to make a living in broadcasting but as consumers if DRM gets in the way of a legitimate backup or time shifting of content it grates on us as it would anyone else. DRM will thankfully and regrettably be with us forever and yes DRM is an unspoken four letter word spoken only by lawyers and politicians (and who wants to listen to them?). Redbox has been used to create a permanent movie library for a dollar a movie with little regard for the crew and talent that produced it. We see the actor’s salary and some notion of Robin Hood slips into the mind of the more noble of us that Hollywood doesn’t need anymore money and so we take. For others no noble rationalization is necessary the odds are you won’t get caught so you take. Free cable from the neighbor to Pirate's Bay, as long as we’ve had thieves we’ve had the need to protect what is valuable. And today people take whatever pittance they can. Youtube users download then re-upload popular videos to siphon off hits from their rightful owner. Viral videos are almost always a one hit wonder so let the right person have their 15 minutes and a little money for entertaining us. In the electronic world in which we live theft is easy, integrity is hard.
Jason Troyer
Denver, Co
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