‘How I Became A Music Pirate’: DRM that drives us to crime

Steve Safran March 20th, 2007

An excellent essay over at Consumerist by Jerrett, one of the site’s readers: “How I Became A Music Pirate.” It’s the harrowing tale of how DRM can actually drive honest people with the best of intentions to a life of piracy. The poor writer chooses a paid download over a free pirated copy, only to find out getting DRM-protected music to play nice with your given hardware configuration is enough to make you want to take a walk off the plank. Wonders Jerrett:

I mean, could you imagine the consumer response if Coke could only be consumed from specific Coke-approved equipment, and then only in the specific ways that the folks at Coke wanted the product to be consumed. “drinking Coke with fast food is no problem, but we must warn you that your license forbids the mixing of Coke with any alcoholic beverages…”