BitTorrent Video Store to be Infected with Windows DRM
Written by Smaran on December 04, 2006Bram Cohen has confirmed in an interview that content on the upcoming BitTorrent Video Store is going to be loaded with Windows DRM, which means restrictions for all and Mac & Linux users are going to be left out in the cold. What fun!
When asked by Michael Calore of Wired News if the content on the new video store would contain DRM and if it would be cross-platform compatible, Cohen said, “we’re rolling out with some content DRM’d, using Windows DRM.” By this he also made it clear that content from the store would only play on Windows computers. The company seems to have no plans to expand their offering to users of other OSes.
Windows DRM has been completely left behind in the portable media player market. The iPod can’t play content restricted (read: infected) by Microsoft’s little virus, and neither can Microsoft’s very own Zune! So, the only consumers who’ll be able to watch videos they have purchased from the BitTorrent Video Store away from their computers will be those who own Creative, Dell, Archos or any one of the other compatible devices. This is, assuming the content from the store will be protected with Janus, Microsoft’s Windows DRM for portable devices. If it isn’t, it won’t play on any portable device at all.
In September of this year Ashwin Navin, the co-founder of BitTorrent Inc said that his company foresees a future without DRM. Although, even then, the company had said that they would use DRM, Navin also made it clear that it would only be in the early stages. Let’s hope the POA hasn’t changed.
Navin made his standpoint on DRM quite clear when he said that “the bottom line is that DRM is bad for the content provider and it’s bad for the consumer.” About foreseeing a future without DRM, he said that he thinks “the future will not be marked by digital rights management. It will be marked by advertising-supported content that’s clear of DRM.” The inventor of BitTorrent, Bram Cohen too says that the company is “very concerned about the usability problems DRM introduces,” and that they are “educating [their] content partners about the lost commercial opportunity.”
To be fair, BitTorrent Inc is only walking down the path of limiting consumers’ rights because it is being forced to. The company is clearly against DRM. According to Cohen, it is the only way they have been able to strike deals with content creators. He says this is “at the insistence of [their] content partners.”
Previously: Azureus Releases 3.0 Beta and Video Sharing Website
Next: Movie Pirate Jailed for Seven Years
11 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
I think your argument isn’t valid. DRM is evil, there’s no doubt about that. But appealing to apple’s fucked-up iPod solution, infected by a DRM of its own?! Please! Enough of this apple-worshipping crap elsewhere.
Since when does Bittorrent kneel to content providers? Society doesn’t destroy crap like DRM by giving in to it.
I agree with you Pariah, but BitTorrent’s motives aren’t limited to the good of society, they need a functioning revenue system in place first. Hopefully they will convince their partners that DRM is not the right choice.
Eh, it wont take long for them to realise that if you push the infected and restricted crap that the consumer doesnt want, they will simply continue to get their content via filesharing and leave sites trying to push their old ways onto a new market out in the cold, profitless. The distributors have never had to cater to the customer before. It has always been a situation where they were in full control, and if you didnt like what they did, then tough shit to you. Now that we have a choice, and can freely obtain what we want without any of their outdated restrictions, they are dumbfounded, and are left so clueless that they probbably do belive with every fiber of thier being that we want to be controlled and told how and when to do what we want. someday I’m sure they’ll see the light and start doing things the way we are now telling them to do. If they dont, then tought titties to them, at this point, we no longer need them, and the sooner we remove the idiot factor form the planet, then the sooner life becomes a little more pleasant
Bram - remember when they gave you all that money? Remember they said your soul was due for it at a future time?
Well here it is!
I don’t quite understand this : Do we NEED companies
like Bram Cohens to run bit-torrent ? No ?
then have fun Bram , go watch some Bill Hicks and do as he says ..
The irony of maintaining an open-source, cross-platform reference client, and then tying it to a content store that is restricted to one platform does not escape me.
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