One question we get a lot here at LearnOutLoud is why we’ve chosen to go DRM-free with our digital downloads. I’ve explained it to a number of people and written a number of posts about it but I’ve never summarized our reasons for going the DRM-free route in one post before. So here goes… (And if you have no idea what I’m talking about or what DRM is please click here.)

1. DRM doesn’t prevent illegal use of files, it just makes it a bit more difficult to access them. A lot of publishers are under the impression that once you put DRM on a file nothing bad will happen to that file ever. It just ain’t so. There are a multitude of tools out there that allow you to strip DRM off of files relatively easily. So while DRM might make illegal sharing a bit more difficult if someone really wants an unprotected/unencrypted version of the file it’s not very hard to do this. This is an important point because…

>>>>> Next 9 Reasons <<<<<

Also last week Billboard (the music industry publication) ran a great article about DRM and the digital music market. The article was picked up by Reuters and ran in many other publications. An article like this would have been almost unthinkable in a recording industry publication just a few months ago!

 

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