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Comment by Infinitesimus | Hacker News Reader

I have a question, can someone help me better understand the fight against DRM? (please, not trolling or insults, I want to genuinely understand).

Is the fight against all DRM or is it against painfully annoying DRM implementations that provide no benefit to the user or is it a pricing issue?

Isn't the (at least initial) idea behind DRM to protect content creators from piracy?

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My best description is that the "cost" of inconveniencing a customer (e.g. limiting device playback, etc.) will never really meet the goal of protecting content. This is because those who want it for free will always find a way to get it (at some "cost"). Those who don't have time/don't give a shit, will pay for the content because the opportunity cost of pirating something is greater than just paying for it.

That said, i find it really annoying as a parent to have to jump through hoops to make backups of my kids DVDs, or convert them to digital for the iPad. So, I'm not stealing anything as I already bought the DVD. I just want my kids to be able to watch it on the iPad.

I don't know of any DRM that "provides a benefit" to the user.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks. So the problem with DRM is primarily that is typically only makes things harder for legitimate users while not proving significantly effective against those determined to pirate the content

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