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[ NNSquad ] Re: "Why DRM doesn't work" (cartoon)


Lauren Weinstein wrote:
"Why DRM doesn't work" (cartoon)

http://bit.ly/dz6DM0  (The Brads)

Coincidentally, I've never been able to get Overdrive audio books
(downloaded from the L.A. Public Library system -- where I'm
authorized to get them) to load or play properly.  A twisty maze of
passages, leading to a dead end. "Plugh."

The webpage that Lauren cited illustrates a recurring problem: if you want to make "security" work, you have to make it convenient.


I spent about 10 years of my life working on military-grade security -- protecting classified material in systems that could handle more than one security level. And the problem we kept running into is that the secure systems are _always_ more difficult to use than the equivalent insecure systems.

The result is that nobody will use them, so nobody will buy them.

Same problem with DRM. If your first attempt to use it doesn't work, you _might_ try a second time. If that doesn't work, you'll go with something that _does_ work, even if it means that you are, in effect, committing "piracy" (that is, theft of IP).