digital-media

Medialoper’s DRM-Free Holiday Shopping Guide

December 1, 2008 by Kirk Biglione

This may surprise some of you, but, DRM has been very good for Medialoper. While it’s true that the whole ‘Loper team is generally opposed to all things DRM, it just so happens that a huge segment of new readers arrive at Medialoper each day after searching Google for solutions to various DRM related problems. The sad truth is, DRM is what brought many of you to Medialoper in the first place.

While our DRM related search traffic is mostly constant throughout the year, we see a surge in traffic around the holidays. That surge peaks on Christmas day as consumers desperately search for ways break the shackles on various DRM crippled holiday gifts.

While it’s great that new readers are discovering Medialoper, we’d be happier if consumers weren’t being suckered into the DRM shell game that restricts fair use and offers no value in return.

And so, in the spirit of the holiday season, and despite our best interests, we’re happy to present Medialoper’s first annual DRM-free Holiday Shopping guide.

9 Reasons Digital Media Products Are A Bad Deal For Consumers

October 18, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

The utopian dream of ubiquitous media access is on the verge of becoming a reality. Consumers can watch TV on their iPods, download sports highlights to their cell phones, and take vast libraries of music with them wherever they go. You would think that all of these new digital distribution systems would be a boon for consumers, but that isn’t necessarily the case.

There are signs that media companies are using the transition to digital distribution as an opportunity to redefine consumer expectations about the value of media products, while at the same time eliminating much of what is currently considered to be fair use.

When consumers buy digital music, movies, or television programs from iTunes, Amazon, and most other digital content sources, they are ultimately paying more, getting less, and being forced to make platform decisions with long term implications.

Here are nine reasons why most digital media products are a bad deal for consumers:

Report From The Field: Nobody’s Paying Attention

October 12, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

As part of my Medialoper reporting duties, I often venture into the real world to get a sense of what’s happening outside the walls of the Internet. I have set up a little lab to study the media consumption habits of ordinary Americans. In order to keep the science almost rigorous, the group I’ve assembled is pretty much random, much like, well, what you’d find in an average office setting.

Since the dawn of the 2006-2007 Fall television season, I’ve had two conversations relating to traditional motion picture viewing. The first was a rather bizarre discussion about Lost. It started out as a review of the season premiere, but, well, died. Somehow it was a rehash of Season One — which, thankfully, I had seen enough of to fake my way through the conversation. Never let it be said that we don’t go the extra mile here.
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Teaching Consumers About DRM

October 5, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Some day in the near future you will purchase a digital audio or video recording and find that it doesn’t work exactly as you expect it to. Maybe it will simply stop playing after a few days, or perhaps you won’t be able to convert it for use on your portable media player, or maybe you won’t be able to skip past the annoying promos at the start of the program. When this happens you can blame Digital Rights Management (DRM) for your dissatisfaction.

While we talk a lot about DRM here on Medialoper, it’s not at all clear that everyone understands what we’re talking about. In fact, a 2005 survey of European digital music consumers (PDF file) revealed that 63% had never even heard of DRM, while 23% had heard of DRM but weren’t sure what it was. There’s no reason to believe that American consumers are any more well informed on the issue.

You Can’t Take It With You

June 26, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

Right now, the various motion picture studios are debating the various issues surrounding mobile and digital media. They are trying to slot new distribution streams into existing boxes. At first glance, this is a fairly simple process. It’s not. Trust me. The New Media Wars are just starting to heat up in Hollywood and they’re going to be very expensive for the studios, but I think there’s another war a’ brewin’: consumers versus content providers.

What? You’re saying this is an old war? Au contraire, mon frere. The consumer wars have barely begun.

Books And Bytes – It’s All Good

May 30, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

After a delightful weekend away from the keyboard, I’d planned to return, refreshed and ready to talk about something other than publishing. But even as I was shopping and cooking and pretending to clean, something kept nagging at me. It became more insistent as I parked myself in my the backyard yesterday, book in hand.

When it comes to new media, it’s not paper-versus-bytes argument. For those who have a “passion for paper”, as Inside Higher Ed’s Alex Golub does, there is no issue. Except that of the cost of paper increasing while the cost of bytes decreases, but I think we’ll still be at the very affordable level for the foreseeable future.