I’ve saved the transcript for a talk by Cory Doctorow here at the ol’ blog for future reference.  You can read the transcript, or if you are the impatient sort you can look at the video.  I saved the transcript in case the video link goes dark, and if you look at it it also has about a dozen links to other sites, including this awesome PDF version.
Cory Doctorow “DRM punishes honest people!” … “Without DRM, people will steal and artists won’t get paid!” … Usage of Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been hotly debated since a college student threatened to put an entire industry out of business with a little application he built in his spare time, Napster. In this transcript of a speech he gave at Microsoft’s campus, Cory explains why DRM doesn’t work, why DRM is bad for society, bad for business, bad for artists, and a bad move for Microsoft.Using Sony and Apple as examples of companies that are using DRM to *punish* consumers, he suggests Microsoft use the opportunity to once again champion users’ rights. To follow our current path, Cory argues, is to stifle innovation and contradict the purpose of American copyright law: to promote the useful arts and sciences.
It boggles my mind that so many people do not get this. DRM doesn’t stop the “bad people” it just hurts the ones that play by the rules.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the claim (still) that Napster was going to put the “entire industry” out of business. Maybe if they stop throwing millions of dollars at no talent hacks like Ashlee Simpson or K-Fed or countless others, and stop paying radio stations millions of dollars to “highlight” their current “hot” artist, maybe the music companies wouldn’t be in such dire straights.
The “industry” would not die, but some old outdated dinosaurs like Sony BMG, Warner Bros., EMI and others certainly might.