Could Removal of DRM Restrictions Actually Decrease Music Piracy?
By Rob Scott
October 13, 2011
October 13, 2011
- New research from Rice and Duke universities challenges conventional wisdom by suggesting that the removal of digital rights management restrictions can actually decrease music piracy.
- “Marketing professors Dinah Vernik of Rice and Devavrat Purohit and Preyas Desai of Duke used analytical modeling to examine how piracy is influenced by the presence or absence of DRM restrictions,” explains the press release. “They found that while these restrictions make piracy more costly and difficult, the restrictions also have a negative impact on legal users who have no intention of doing anything illegal.”
- “In many cases, DRM restrictions prevent legal users from doing something as normal as making backup copies of their music,” said Vernik, assistant professor of marketing at Rice. “Because of these inconveniences, some consumers choose to pirate.”
- According to the research paper, copyright owners don’t necessarily benefit from less piracy. “Decreased piracy doesn’t guarantee increased profits,” Purohit said. “In fact, our analysis demonstrates that under some conditions, one can observe lower levels of piracy and lower profits.”
- The press release includes a compelling statement from the late Steve Jobs: “Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy.”
2 Comments
This is true not only of music, but of digital content in general. The digital shackles that copyright holders place on content prevent consumers from accessing that content across all their devices, prevent them from making back-up copies, and obstruct their ability to port that content to new and emerging platforms. All these roadblocks make the content inherently less valuable, and are disincentives to buy. Apple’s fight to force music companies to remove DRM systems from music corresponded with a period of huge growth in sales on the iTunes store. Movies studios should take note, and face the fact that piracy is an inevitable (but ultimately small) cost of doing business. The obsession with combating piracy is self-defeating, and an impediment to growth. Its like a brick and mortar retailer who insists on frisking every customer to prevent shoplifting. It drives away everyone, not just the thieves.
This is true not only of music, but of digital content in general. The digital shackles that copyright holders place on content prevent consumers from accessing that content across all their devices, prevent them from making back-up copies, and obstruct their ability to port that content to new and emerging platforms. All these roadblocks make the content inherently less valuable, and are disincentives to buy. Apple’s fight to force music companies to remove DRM systems from music corresponded with a period of huge growth in sales on the iTunes store. Movies studios should take note, and face the fact that piracy is an inevitable (but ultimately small) cost of doing business. The obsession with combating piracy is self-defeating, and an impediment to growth. Its like a brick and mortar retailer who insists on frisking every customer to prevent shoplifting. It drives away everyone, not just the thieves.
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