From almost the moment digital media became a thing, we've seen efforts to
make sure that movies, video games, and tacky music videos with people in
parachute pants aren't passed around
illegally. From ominous looking piracy warnings on films to songs telling us
not to copy that floppy. It's no secret
that the companies who produce content see the folks who consume it passing
around their stuff as a serious problem.
And not too long ago, well, they stopped asking us nicely, well, somewhat nicely,
and decided to take matters into their own hands by limiting what users could
and could not do with their copies of Madmen by implementing a technology
called digital rights management or DRM.
But how does it work and why does it bother people so much? Now, most early
DRM existed in the form of encryption and decryption keys. So, your DVD would
have all the content on it, but it would be scrambled and then your DVD player
would have a key that allows it to descramble it. But the problem with
having all these keys out there is eventually someone's going to figure out
how to hijack the key and use it in a way that it wasn't intended. So, we've
got a lot more stuff available in the DRM arsenal today. One very common type
that you should be familiar with if you buy music on iTunes or games using a
service like Steam is online authentication. Many games and programs
control the way that they're used by binding purchases to a specific account,
then requiring the program to check with a remote server that the device or
account in use is authenticated before letting the media be played back or in
some cases even installed. So even if you've got all the files, you're more
out of luck than Sonic the Hedgehog at the bottom of a lake thanks to well also
much more advanced encryption schemes that exist today. Some particularly
obnoxious online protection schemes require constant phoning home during
use, which offers greater copy protection, but also means that you
can't play at all if something happens to your connection, something only
legitimate users will have to contend with since pirates will have figured out
a way to disable the feature. But what if you're watching movies or listening
to music? Many streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix use some form of
DRM to prevent people from downloading things to their hard drive to use
without a subscription. And although some people have found workarounds, many
of them don't offer the same level of quality as you'd have with a legit copy.
And then of course there's physical media. physical media like Blu-rays and
DVDs is still mostly stuck in the uh
encryption and decryption key paradigm since they're intended to be played back
on players that might not actually have
an internet connection. But there are other schemes like region locking that's
been around for many years that prevent discs from being played in other parts
of the world. So, at least if piracy is rampant here, these guys over here won't
be able to play back that content, unless of course it's ripped in a more
sophisticated manner. Of course, people
usually don't like it when they're told what they are or are not allowed to do
with stuff that they bought. And this has set off a furious debate as to just
how much DRM is appropriate and even the
ongoing arms race between coders trying to defeat DRM locks and music movie and
game studios trying to develop more hacks proof versions of copy protection.
And this was partially responsible for a famous law in the United States called
the DMCA, which made it illegal to break
any sort of DRM, a huge FU to users who
feel like they should be able to do what they want with the things they've paid
for, especially when it's not for infringing purposes, like creating
digital backups in the event of a fire or to be played back on alternate
devices like their phones if they only own a DVD, which obviously ly isn't
going to fit in a phone or accessing titles without an internet connection.
And then of course they're butting heads with the content distributors who say
that making things available without DRM will lead to rampant piracy in an era
where people can torrent an entire season of My Little Pony in just a few
minutes. So who's right here? Well, as
more and more of what we enjoy goes digital, there's no doubt that both new
technologies and new policies that try to strike the right balance will
continue to be tested. And I hope a happy medium can be found. But if not,
don't worry. I don't plan on encrypting techquicki anytime
soon. Speaking of a happy medium,
linda.com is the medium online where
with a membership, there's a form of DRM right there, buddies. access to the page
DRM. You can watch and learn from top experts who are passionate about
teaching. They've got thousands of video courses that you can stream on demand to
learn on your own schedule and at your own pace. You can browse course
transcripts to follow along or search for an answer and skip to that point in
the video. You can take notes as you go and refer to them later. You can
download the tutorials, more digital rights management, and watch them on the
go, including access on your iOS or Android device. Create and save your
favorite playlists and customize your learning path or share with friends and
all that good stuff. So head over to linda.com and get a free trial today.
All you can eat for 10 days. And if you decide you like it, then it starts at
just $25 a month for a membership. So I
think that pretty much wraps it up, guys. Thanks for watching. Like it if you liked it, dislike the video if you
thought it sucked. Leave a comment if you have suggestions for future fastest possibles just like this one. And don't
forget to check out our other channels, too. We did a recent video where I
actually water cooled a MacBook. So, you guys are going to want to check that
shizz out if you're into water cooling
MacBooks. It's also just kind of entertaining.