Hmmm, here are my thoughts on Digital Rights Management (and this really creepy logo picture via LA Times).

I remember back when Napster was the ‘cool’ and ‘underground’ segue into ripped CD black markets.  It was no doubt a criminal offense, but the abuse was too white collar of a crime for people to feel any remorse.  Come on, everyone has either accepted, given, or made mixed CDs that were full of free downloaded music from sites like Napster.  But the reality is, how realistic is it to police digital rights management?

The Internet has become so huge, with billions of digital files of all formats being downloaded and transferred both legally and illegally.  In the past, everything on the Internet were up for grabs, because there was not many legitimate channels for consumers to obtain their digital goods.  In fact, the idea of obtaining digital goods with a price probably never even crossed their minds.  Why pay for something when you can get it for free, right?

Nevertheless, we’ve come a long way.  There have been many controls put in place to manage digital rights online, such as Creative Commons.  Creating a cost friendly supply for the online digital files demand, as Apple did with iTunes, is the current answer managing a legitimate environment for obtaining and sharing digital files.

In the past, when Napster was the new cool kid in town, people still bought music offline.  Yes, CD sales have gone down over the years, but perhaps we should look at the increase in MP3 music sales online.  The bottom line is, those who completely rely on free downloads will most likely continue to do so (until they get caught).  Those who bought hard copies of music in the past already have and will continue to revert their purchases to an online shopping mechanism.