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Dvorak says Screw Digital-Rights Bugaboo

According to John Dvorak, the content owner's DRM mantra is actually a smoke screen for their anti-competitive behavior, and the protection of a broken legacy business model that intentionally bundles small pieces of good content with lots of 'crap' content.
"The record industry needs DRM more than the movie industry does, because it needs a surefire way to keep people from copying the one good song from an album. It needs the leverage of that one good song to continue to gouge the public with high prices. In many instances, the one good song per album actually amounts to the user spending $15-$18 for one song, since the other ones are junk. The record industry folks hate iTunes and other single-song distribution mechanisms for this reason. They've even suggested that certain singles be sold for more money than usual. They are trying to recoup all the money they would have made selling albums with one good song and 13 pieces of crap.

For the people who run the movie industry, these DRM systems are important so they can carefully orchestrate the worldwide marketing campaign for a movie and not have to worry about it getting into the hands of, say, the Germans months before its theatrical release in Germany. That would ruin the marketing campaign. Movie-business executives also see themselves as being in the music business, with they themselves being the orchestral directors. They pose as conductors wearing tails, directing a marketing symphony."

In summary, Dvorak accuses the entertainment sector of self-inflicted damage, based upon their own continued inability to adapt to demand shifts in the marketplace -- "They do everything they can to ruin their own business by refusing to change anything, and making it difficult for the consumer to do what he or she wants to do."

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