Dennis McDonald: Will Hard Times Lead To More DRM?

A few days ago, Dennis McDonald wrote:

An important question is whether competition exists (or is allowed to exist). DRM can be viewed as an artificial restriction on competition. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. As we’ve seen in the U.S. it also helps if you manipulate the legal system to obstruct competition.

Even though I’m not a big fan of DRM, as the Chen article [on the demise / evolution of Web 2.0] suggests bad economic times will force changes. I think that we may see increasing emphasis on hardware and software lock-ins coupled with increased pressures from content industries for stronger “anti-copying” enforcement mechanisms.

Maybe. Certainly not in music related. Maybe in video related. In social networking sites not video driven? Remains to be seen.

At the same time, ownership of social networking information contributed by users will be the big deal. When the Web 2.0 sites fail, among the only resources of possible value left are contact lists, network connections, user generated content, and the like. No wonder Facebook tried (and failed) to change their EULA to apparently grab more rights over user provided content on the site.

So we'll see what happens to consumer privacy if and when these sites fail.

Comments

[Dennis McDonald]

Good point Bob - this (potential failure) of social networking sites is one reason why I have made it a point to maintain my own web site as the center of my online presence, not other sites I do not control.

Dennis