"Steal this Comic"

[iago]

Today's XKCD is fantastic:


I opted to post this in 'general' rather than 'humour' because, although it's presented in a satirical way, it isn't funny at all, but the truth.

Who does DRM affect? The people who legitimately buy a product. And the people who pirate it? They get something much better. It's pretty ridiculous.

[Chavo]

The obvious solution in the comic is to buy non-DRM media.  Nothing speaks louder than consumers spending their money elsewhere.

[iago]

Absolutely.

Of course, if enough people start doing that, the sales of the DRM record companies will fall, and they'll blame piracy. Catch-22.

[MyndFyre]

Absolutely.

Of course, if enough people start doing that, the sales of the DRM record companies will fall, and they'll blame piracy. Catch-22.

Tough to blame piracy when sales of non-DRM media go up.

[iago]

Absolutely.

Of course, if enough people start doing that, the sales of the DRM record companies will fall, and they'll blame piracy. Catch-22.

Tough to blame piracy when sales of non-DRM media go up.

That's true, but numbers can be twisted.

[Joe]

"In a race of two stock cars, the United States beat Russia. A Russian newspaper reported that their car finished second while the United States' finished second to last."

[Newby]

It is very true. But it is also very sad. Amazon sells non-DRMd stuff but their collection pales in comparison to iTunes. I am able to find things on iTunes that I can't on Amazon, and I can find even more on the internet floating around that would constitute "piracy."

Corporate companies don't have a clue. There was an article from the RIAA once that said something like, "Think that perfect christmas album is too good to be true? it is, it's bootlegged!" My question is... why don't they make that perfect christmas album for the consumer?

[Sidoh]

Yeah, iTunes is massively convenient, I must admit.  I haven't used it but a few times, but I was impressed with how easy it was to use and how well it worked (other than the shitty DRM, of course).

That being said, I think Randall hit the nail on its head with this one.  I couldn't agree more with the underlying argument.

[Camel]

It is very true. But it is also very sad. Amazon sells non-DRMd stuff but their collection pales in comparison to iTunes.

Amazon also sells V0 MP3s, which are technically lossy, but of comparable quality to a lossless format. iTunes sells music of substantially lower quality - which I suppose doesn't matter to the millions of customers who put the DRMed song on their shuffle and listen with the shitty ear buds that came with it.

[leet_muffin]

iTunes faiiiils. I wish I still had a rockbox compatible ipod...

[Camel]

iTunes faiiiils. I wish I still had a rockbox compatible ipod...

Why? When I used Rockbox, it didn't have any features that my iPod didn't have, and it can't play DRM protected files.

I've heard it will play video on non-video ipods, but it's choppy.

[Newby]

When I used Rockbox, it didn't have any features that my iPod didn't have

Besides a lack of need for iTunes, more codecs (ogg, flac), skinning, better selection of games (e.g. gameboy emulator, Doom), voice recording... totally worth the battery life dropping by a bit.

[deadly7]

Besides a lack of need for iTunes, more codecs (ogg, flac)

Putting FLAC on an iPod is just a dumb idea, imo.

[Sidoh]

Besides a lack of need for iTunes, more codecs (ogg, flac)

Putting FLAC on an iPod is just a dumb idea, imo.

Yeah, I agree.  I won't argue that lossless codecs don't have a place, but even with pretty good sound equipment, I cannot distinguish a V0 from a FLAC unless I look at the file sizes -- then I definitely notice...

[deadly7]

Yeah, I agree.  I won't argue that lossless codecs don't have a place, but even with pretty good sound equipment, I cannot distinguish a V0 from a FLAC unless I look at the file sizes -- then I definitely notice...

I was going more along the lines of "You could fit like, 7 mp3s for every single flac, and when you're dealing with TRANSPORTING music to listen to, it makes sense to go with the higher density format."