Digital Rights Management has been and will continue to be a hot topic for a while. On the one end we have the MPAA and the RIAA who are stuck in the early 1900s, and intelligent consumers. In the middle, we have people like Microsoft, who have to try to satisfy both ends of the scale. Then, there's some lesser companies that make DRM (like MacroVision) who even beyond the MPAA and RIAA, in the sense that they try to propogate the need for their useless technology.

Why is DRM bad? Because it hurts the customer. It takes the flexibility and usefulness of a technology away. It's anti-innovation. No one wakes up in the morning and says “Hmm, I'd like to pay money to do less than I can do for free.” That's exactly what DRM does for consumers.

Some people defend DRM, saying that if there was no DRM, then people would copy things left and right and collapse their industry. Apparently these people have never heard of eMule or Kazaa. Crackers and pirates are going to bypass whatever system you have installed anyways. Except for simple protections (say, an easy-to-use activation system that doesn't require an Internet connection), putting extra runtime checks in that interefere with operation makes things worse for your customers.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't encrypt your binaries or run them through an obfuscator. It means you shouldn't have software that polls in the background for debuggers that might be running, or secret checks on the CD to ensure it is legitimate.

For instance, take my post about stupid copy protection like SafeDisc: Here, a legit customer is suffering from the stupidity imposed by the corporation: You MUST SafeDisc all releases. In fact, me, a legitimate customer, had to turn to getting a pirate crack to be able to use the software I purchased. Had I pirated it to begin with, I'd have never run into trouble. In fact, check that link out, and look at all the search referrals. A LOT of people are having the same problems. The solution? Don't pay, just get a crack. Again, DRM messing things up.

Same thing for some of those dongle-based protection systems. If the software is worth it, it'll get cracked. However, legit customers don't get a crack. So, when their dongle fails, they get rather annoyed. Ask some Autodesk/discreet customers about that, and I'm sure you'll hear some great stories. Nothing like shelling out $$$$$ to get a top-of-the-line system, only to have your software say “Hey, you don't have a dongle. Theif! Call and buy our software!” a day before deadlines.

So, besides pissing customers off, does it hurt companies? Well, yes, and quite directly. An average user, say, someone with an Autodesk product, might not go into cracks, thinking every crack download has a virus and whatnot. They might not want to/care to/be able to install them. However, when the company FORCES the customer to figure it out (i.e., to meet your deadline, or to copy some music in time for a party, or to just bloody use the software you paid for), that customer now KNOWS how to work the pirate scene. The customer sees that well, no, cracks down erase your hard disk and delete your work while infecting every machine on the network with a virus. In fact, in some cases, things might work even better (like a SafeDisc game that pauses the game every few minutes to search for the CD).

Now what? Well, you've taken an innocent customer, and forced him into piracy once. Next time he needs 1 more license, he's got one less reason to purchase it. Next time there's a choice between running down and buying a DVD, or downloading a rip from the net (and avoiding region issues), there's less incentive to buy. “Average Joe” customers who would never have used a crack before (even if they wanted to), now might go ahead and do that. And recommend/show to their “Average Jane” friends.

And unlike earlier MacroVision stuff that protected analog tapes (ever try to copy a rental to VHS?) that required small $10 hardware cleaners to fix, things in the digital domain and on the Internet don't require any special hardware. Installing a crack can be as easy as 3 clicks. Deprotecting content can be done with a single click. Hell, Windows even asks me to decrypt DVDs when inserted in the drive -- no clicks required if I so desired!

I wonder how long it'll take people holding IP to realise that working WITH their customers instead of treating everyone like the devil will help them. It seems pretty obvious to me and everyone I've talked to. I wonder why it's so hard for them?