Wired reports that Apple has caved to Hollywood and added restrictive copy protection to MacBooks. The DRM scheme prevents MacBook owners from watching copyrighted content when the computer is connected to a display that is not “authorized”.
Movie studios are scared stiff of allowing anyone to watch video on a device that could used to make and distribute copies, giving them the false impression that they need to dictate where, when and how a customer is allowed to watch a movie or TV show. Unfortunately for the honest, law-abiding customer a “device that could be used to make and distribute copies” is pretty much any computer with a hard drive or television hooked up to a recorder — all devices with perfectly legal applications.
The copy protection scheme shipping with new MacBooks prevents content purchased from the iTunes Store from playing if the laptop is hooked up to an output device that is not approved. These unapproved output devices include many recent televisions and external monitors.When one attempts to watch an iTunes movie or TV show on their unapproved TV they see the following message instead:
This movie cannot be displayed because a display that is not authorized to play protected movies is connected.
That message and the very concept are both appalling. Who is any retailer or studio to decide whether or not our televisions and monitors are “approved”? Who is anyone to tell a paying customer where and how they can watch a movie or TV show? Does gathering the family around your laptop screen to watch the latest blockbuster sound even the least bit enjoyable? In the Wired article, technology and media analyst James McQuivey nails it:
“You really shouldn’t be expected to know whether your video devices are compliant,” said James McQuivey, a technology and media analyst at Forrester Research. “It’s not your job. To require that burden on them is an unfair thing to do.”
This is a situation in which everyone loses. Studios expend tremendous resources to get customers to purchase digital content legally, and those who choose to do so are treated like criminals. As the studios make it more difficult to legitimately obtain their products, the customers who played along remember just how easy illegal downloading can be. The entire situation is ridiculous — how amusing and tragic is it to observe an entertainment business in which customers aren’t allowed to view the product?
Finally, how long will it be before the copy protection on these DRM-crippled MacBooks is circumvented? 3… 2… 1…
