The Death of DRM

I didn't even bother to read much about DRM when it became the new buzzword in the enterprise content management discipline, because I knew DRM would die the first time I heard of it. Easy access to content is one of the drivers of the content economy, and protection technologies can only work against that, diminishing the user experience. The low perceived value that the user gets from buying protected content will then continue to drive users to go and look for the content where it is "free", even though it might require an effort and the content quality might be suffering. So it was just a matter of time until DRM would die, and now Steve Jobs tries to put the final bullet in DRM and take the glory for doing so.

The recipe to stop wide-spread content theft ("piracy") is so damn simple - it's about creating the right offer:

• Creating a great user experience, with fast and easy access to content and superior content quality
• Setting a price that consumers find attractive and that reflects that reproduction and distribution of content is basically free today.
• Providing value adding services to those who buy the content.

The right offer will kill piracy, in the same way as bad user experiences has killed DRM.