So what? People who want to produce open content will still be able to use the internet to reach those who want to consume it.
I'd actually love to have viable DRM. I'd love a youtube where I could pay a monthly subscription instead of watching annoying ads. If DRM gave me that option it'd be great.
>I'd love a youtube where I could pay a monthly subscription instead of watching annoying ads. If DRM gave me that option it'd be great.
Can you explain how DRM could actually accomplish that? I don't see any existing barrier to them offering an option to pay a monthly fee to get access to ad-free YouTube along side the ad supported free version, other than that probably not enough people would prefer paying vs. watching ads for it to be worth offering it.
I guess I just don't see the huge problem in allowing people who have paid to download the videos. You already have this person's money. If they cancel their subscription then they no longer get access to new videos; you can sell long-term subscriptions with early termination fees to prevent users from subscribing one day out of the year to get all the new videos. The videos are going to be on The Pirate Bay regardless of the presence of DRM. The user who pays and wants to cheat can as if not more easily share his password with his friends than the videos themselves.
I just don't see what it's buying you -- and it's providing less value to the user who can't as easily watch the video offline or on as wide a range of devices, which reduces the number of users you can attract at a given price point.
I'd actually love to have viable DRM. I'd love a youtube where I could pay a monthly subscription instead of watching annoying ads. If DRM gave me that option it'd be great.