Oh no – I’ve missed my favourite programme on Channel 4. No problem, my PVR records it for me – if I remember to set it and don’t delete it before I watch it. Still, should be no problem, I can use Channel 4’s 4OD service and download the programme, maybe I’ll have to pay, but hey, thats the way things are. But no. All I can get is Russell Brand’s idiot face staring at me:
Of course you need to have a PC running Windows XP to download their stuff. So what do I do now? I could just download what I want from one of the numerous “illegal” download sites that I keep hearing about, which would be easier and cheaper. Why do I even need a client to download programmes anyway – probably to enforce some kind of lame DRM rubbish. Its enough to make me want to dig out a Windows PC from somewhere, download C4OD’s entire catalouge, rip out the DRM and let the bit torrent community do the rest.
I’m getting a bit bored with the hair shirt wearing Mac/Linux brigade harping on about applications that only run on Windows.
My car only runs on roads. If I bought a train I wouldnt expect it to run on the M4. 95% of the world runs Windows so why should people bother to target their applications at anything else? Software development is expensive, so why blow money targeting 5% of the audience. As for DRM. Broadcasters like Channel 4 have no choice. If they dont use DRM then the studios who own the programs won’t let them distribute them.
DRM provides a very thin veneer of control over media that is fundamentally uncontrollable. If people like Channel 4 and the numerous other Windows-centric service providers tried to encourage people to use their services by providing better user experience, rather than investing “expensive” developer time trying to lock people out, they would have a vastly better service. The third parties would then be in a position to challenge the Executives that insist on DRM.
My point remains that DRM is a waste of time. The effort that goes into providing a slight head start against the crackers would be better spent improving the quality of service.
As a TV license fee payer I am really p*ssed off about the lack of broadband support for tv viewers. I don’t want to watch a TV on THAT day at THAT particular time, I want the freedom to view it whenever I want, wherever.
As none of the broadcasters in the UK live up to my expectations I rely on the aforementioned Bittorrent community. Check out uknova.com (in fact, its so popular now that its very difficult to sign up)
They try their best to stay “semi-legal”, none of the torrents up there are available on commercial release and there are strict rules for posting content. This is what the TV networks should be doing, making their content easily available without DRM. DRM has and always will fail but all old institutions desparately try to hang on to their old revenue streams without realising the possibility for extra revenue from new sources. Just look at the OS *cough
“I’m getting a bit bored with the hair shirt wearing Mac/Linux brigade harping on about applications that only run on Windows.
My car only runs on roads.”
Ah, wonderful, the car analogy. Now imagine your car only ran on roads paved by Microsoft.
“I’m getting a bit bored with the hair shirt wearing Mac/Linux brigade harping on about applications that only run on Windows.”
Having recently discovered what a “hair shirt” is, the comments of Windows Developer are even more puzling. Apparently a hair shirt was a type of shirt worn by monks that was intended to make them uncomfartable, presumably so that they could emphasize with the suffering of Christ. If Windows Developer has clearly never experienced the horrendous suffering that Mac users experience day in, day out as their sleek, stylish machines vastly outperform most other consumer grade hardware.
Its even less likely that he’s used Debian’s apt-get to find, download install and then start using a program within minutes. If anyone is wearing hair shirts, surely its the Vista users who’ll need gigs and gigs of ram, will incure higher hardware and software costs, and will waste valuable CPU cycles so that Vista’s DRM system can operate.