In geek circles, there’s been a lot of talk about DRM, fair use, the DMCA, and copyright. Here’s my take.

The screen on my Apple IIc flashed up a hi-res graphics splash screen for a program called Nibbles Away, one of the classic bitwise copy programs for that era. With Nibbles, it was possible to copy the 440k floppy disks in an exact way, preserving even the ordering of data on the media (Which was a then-common copy-protection scheme). At the time, the idea of fair use was being challenged and clarified, and even teachers in schools were getting in trouble for making photocopies of things to hand out to students. Gradually, the right balance was struck, but the one thing that didn’t stick was the use of technology to prevent copies. Time and time again, the digital protection schemes were either worked-around or defeated… Or were they? There were some successful DRM schemes even then…games that no one could figure out how to copy. The interesting thing is, those uncopyable games always seemed to disappear, as the companies who sold them went out of business. Why? Because after the initial market splash of a new game, there will always be other games to grab attention — unless you catch new attention through further distribution.

For years, the very industries that have been pushing DRM have been thriving on a secondary market that depends on the behind-the-scenes copying of their products. Friends tell other friends to check out a game, and they take the copy home and love it. They go and buy the strategy guide, and when the sequel comes out they buy that too. Sure, the first game was lost revenue, but you now have a fan, which is worth far more than one sale.

These businesses fail to recognize that in a saturated market, excitement over your product by those who can’t or won’t buy it can drive sales to people who can and will.

They say that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. In the marketplace this holds very true: companies that are hated are still in the public eye and still make sales. Companies that people are indifferent toward will begin to fade.

Me? I won’t buy DRM-enabled music. Which means I don’t keep up with the latest bands, because I don’t shop the DRM-based outlets (like iTunes). Which means I don’t hear new releases I might buy. Which means not only do I not buy new music online, I don’t buy it on CD either. My excitement about music has been dimmed by DRM, and my indifference to media companies is growing. So not only do I not pirate movies or music, I don’t buy them at all.

Thanks to DRM, I’m one of many customers that these industries are in the process of losing, and it’s going to take a toll when our addiction to popular media is broken by indifference to the sales channels.