OT: DRM / broadmand / etc. (was Re: OT: Dr. Who)

[Kenneth Brody]

On 7/27/2010 9:44 AM, Fairlight wrote:
[...]
> I don't want to say never, but as long as iTunes clings to their DRM, I'm
> far, far (99.999%) less likely to even attempt to use iTunes as opposed to
> buying CDs or DVDs, even if it's only a matter of principle.

I've only bought 2 songs from iTunes, and they didn't have any DRM.  (I 
wouldn't buy them if they did, as I had to be able to burn them to CD.)

[...]
> To my knowledge, you can't export iTunes music to anything other than an
> iPod/Touch/Pad, so that's a non-starter if you have a device that doesn't
> speak their proprietary DRM scheme.

Again, my very limited experience was with non-DRM, which I burned to CD.

The only DRM stuff I have from iTunes are some free TV shows.  (Strange that 
they use DRM on free stuff, but whatever.  I only got them to watch on my 
laptop, anyway.)

[...]
> The fact is, video file downloading is a bit painful on a standard 1.5/256
> DSL line.

<voice type="Arnold Horshack">
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!
</voice>

I have 25/25 broadband.  :-)

(And I actually get sustained 20MBPS download speeds from "good" sites.  Two 
quick tests show my laptop's WiFi getting a sustained 15/6 and 14/10 right now.)

[...]
> always options.  Satellite has its own inherent problems.  (Satellite
> would be the -last- thing I'd try, as the inherent latency due to bouncing
> signals to/from LEO would make gaming virtually impossible.)

My first experience with "broadband" was satellite, but that's because the 
only other option was 56K dialup at the time.  (DSL was "coming soon" for 
several years.)

I didn't have to worry about online gaming, but telnet took a bit of getting 
used to.

[...]
> And frankly, I know -many- people to whom I've recommended digital
> distribution (Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse, et al) for software, and they
> refuse to adopt it, saying they want physical copies, period, the end.  Not
> all of them are older folks, either.
 >
 > Physical media distribution is far from dead.

I'm usually willing to pay the extra 5-10 dollars to get the "physical 
media", especially when given the option to "download now, and we'll ship 
the box later".

-- 
Kenneth Brody