Copyright protection software and other methods of protecting digital works from piracy and illegal distribution are laughable. DRM is easily bypassed and most other protective schemes have work-arounds. Stardock will soon release a computer game that is sans DRM, but uses other features to encourage legal purchases. Look at that. An ingenious approach to a business and legal problem. This is the American capitalistic spirit.
Then you have the other approach, promulgated by the RIAA, which is crying that the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act contains loopholes that allow broadband providers and Web companies to turn a blind eye to customers’ unlawful activities without suffering any legal consequences. Because clearly the only way to protect one’s business and make money is to increase punishment and expand the acts subject to punishment. Are we back in the Middle Ages?
The sad thing is that, with the money and influence the RIAA wields, the DMCA will likely be amended to extend the umbrella of who can be prosecuted for copyright infringement and increase the penalties. Who suffers? The consumers and American capitalists who provide the backbone of this nation, not the whiners and media moguls who lack a little technological creativity. My advice to the have-nots: Look at the direction the internet and media are heading, muster up some ingenuity, and discard your antiquated methods of castigation.
