Those of you who read my previous blog about P2P, MP3’s and the crusade against people sharing music on the internet, know that I have a problem with the way the music and showbiz industry is reacting on the possibilities Internet offers. They are furiously trying repress people because they have no answer to the changing way people look at digital rights and such. In short: they try to close Pandora’s Box. Just as futile as trying to un-invent electricity.
The funny thing is we have a saying in Dutch that is rather amusing and that accurately describes the way the industry is reacting to the Internet.
We call that “Ostrich politics”: when an Ostrich is faced with danger (real danger: they do not scare easy and are pretty fierce) they stick their head in the sand. Basically they ignore the danger, hoping it will just “go away”. Thus leaving themselves vulnerable to the attacker. In a sense that is what the music and film industry is doing. Put out a small fire though a complete city is burning to the ground.
The scary thing is they now try to sell their stupid plans under the veil of ‘security’. The whole DRM method that Microsoft stands for, for instance, makes it impossible to play a MP3 or other digital asset on any other computer than the one it was downloaded to (via a payed service). Thus making it impossible to share it. MS claims this is because of security reasons: if you give a file a digital fingerprint that links it to a specific computer, you will always know it it save to use.
Yeah right. And pigs fly. Instead of calling it Digital “Rights” Management they should call it Digital “Restrictions” Management: if Micro$oft and the music and film industry get their way you can toss your rights straight into the bin!