Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion

DRM - Seriously, Why Not?

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Hef:
I've read the obvious- Philisophical Reasons, DRM is the Devil, and many other reasons.

But really, I've got a Sansa, I pay for Rhapsody, I am fully licensed when booted to the Sansa Firmware - why cant Rockbox somehow "See" the License and use it to play my Licensed Songs on My Sansa?

At first I just accepted it as "the way it is" but lately I've been wondering why.
I'm just a User, not a Developer, so I have no idea what would go into it. Just looking for an answer.

Thanks
Hef

cool_walking_:
DRM, by it's nature, can't be open source.  There's probably heaps of legal and licensing stuff as well.

EDIT: What more do you want than an ethical reason?

Soaa-:
DRM actually encrypts the DRM-infected songs. Without a way to decrypt them, even with the license, there is nothing we can do to play them.

Yotto:
Because they won't let you.  You pay Rhapsody for the privilege to listen to the music they let you listen to, on the devices they say it's okay to listen to the music on.

This is not the Rockbox philosophy getting in your way, it's the Rhapsody philosophy getting in your way. Open Source not wanting to sully itself with DRM isn't the problem.  The problem DRM not giving Open Source the option.

GodEater:

--- Quote from: Yotto on November 20, 2007, 09:53:52 PM ---Open Source not wanting to sully itself with DRM isn't the problem.  The problem DRM not giving Open Source the option.

--- End quote ---

I'm not sure I agree. I can only speak from a personal stand point here - but even if Rhapsody or some other organisation were to approach us and say, here, this is how to implement DRM in your software so it can play our songs - I'd still tell them to get lost.

The problem with DRM is people accepting it in the first place. If we all had the OP's attitude there'd be no hope for open standards at all. The only way to get rid of the DRM problem is to simply not use it.

I can't see any advantages to using it at all - and plenty of disadvantages. There have been several news stories this year alone of people who've been paying for content, and then the company that's been licensing that content to them has decided to about face (for whatever reason), and suddenly you can't access that content any more. Despite the fact that you've paid for it. That is just wrong on so many levels.

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