Kirk Biglione

I knew that I’d written a lot about DRM over the past few years, but I had no clue just how much until I started sifting through the Medialoper archives in preparation for my TOC conference presentation next week.

In my defense, there’s been a lot to write about. The entertainment industry’s obsession with DRM has been both fascinating and baffling. At this point, almost no one believes that DRM actually prevents piracy. To make matters worse, it’s become clear that DRM is a barrier to the development of a viable marketplace for digital content. And yet, the vast majority of media companies still insist on using DRM. Even the record companies that have recently begun selling DRM-free music still won’t rule out a return to DRM.

This is insanity. And a strange form of ritual suicide by DRM.

There’s no point in going on about DRM when I’ve already written so much about the topic. Since I frequently get inquiries about DRM I thought it might be useful (to myself if no one else) to collect links to my various posts on the topic here.

So, for my fellow DRM-obsessives, here’s my metric ton of posts about DRM (in no particular order):

• The Futility Of DRM
• 9 Reasons Digital Media Products Are A Bad Deal For Consumers
• Do Consumers Care About DRM?
• Teaching Consumers About DRM
• Five Lessons The Music Industry Can Learn From AllofMP3
• Life After DRM: A Scrap Heap Of Dead Music
• Zune’s Big Innovation: Viral DRM
• Is Zune A PlaysForSure Killer?
• The DRM Virus Is Spreading - A Pandemic May Be Near
• Google Video Debacle Demonstrates the Need for Consumer Protection Laws
• MLB and DRM: A Match Made in Hell
• Music Executive Makes Startling Deathbed Confession: “We Were Wrong”
• The Week the Music Industry Came Unraveled
• Macrovision’s DRM Snake Oil
• DRM for Books: Will Publishers Learn Anything from the Music Industry
• Amazon’s Kindle: The Price of Free EVDO and Proprietary DRM
• Great Moments in RIAA History: January 1997, RIAA Develops System To Prevent CD Copying
• Washington Tries Its Best to Kill Internet Radio: With a law requiring DRM for audio streams, of course.
• My Afternoon in Wal-Mart’s MP3 Download Hell
• How to Screw Up DRM-Free Music — Lesson One: Trading Cards
• Why Sony’s Latest DRM Fiasco Is Probably A Good Thing
• Steve Jobs’ DRM Double Standard
• 2007 Year In Review: How DRM Died: This was written at the start of 2007, while I was right about the death of DRM for music, the details of how it transpired were a bit different. I keep getting emails from people running across this after the fact with the impression that this was a recap of the year that was. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
• Will Zune Be The Death of DRM
• How Do I Remove DRM from a WMV File? One of life’s eternal questions.
• Piracy, Perks, and DRM