This is what gets to me
So, a few months ago I bought a few movies and watched all but one of them. Tonite I was in the mood for a movie so I walked over and picked it up. I saw that it was sealed. Sure I can see that. I took off the outer plastic. Then I see that there is a seal on the main opening. I pick at it. finally a few seconds later I coax it off (this is the sort of thing that Erika usually does for me, since I get annoyed quickly). I tried to pry it open, dang there is a seal at the top too. I start picking at that when I realize there is one on the bottom as well. ARGH. I take the case to the kitchen and get a knife. Finally it’s open. When I get it open I see that there is a magnetic tag inside.
The only thing I can think is…these people went to all this trouble to keep out the criminals and all they served to do was annoy me to no end (note: I have a short fuse :). This is what really gets to me. DRM, magnetic strips, seals, they all make no difference. Criminals will steal it no matter what. Does it matter to the kid that pocketed the whole thing that he had to use a knife to open it? No! Of course not. It has no value to him, he paid nothing for it. I however did.
I pop the DVD in. I hit FFWD to go through the previews (yes after I paid for a movie, they took the opportunity to advertize to me) . However the FFWD stops and can’t be restarted while the FBI warning sits on my screen for a full 15 seconds (it’s longer than you think…sit still and count to 15 mississippis).
Again, what does the criminal care. If he was going to rip it and put it up on a bittorrent site, that warning isn’t going to stop him. But it annoyed the hell out of me, the customer.
This is similar to the situation with software. If someone is going to steal it, they weren’t going to be your cutomer in the first place. Who cares, let them take it. The people who would buy it will buy it. If nothing else, the person who stole it increased mind share in the application. they are using it, they may even recommend it to a paying cutomer.
I am not defending stealing of others hard work. However I have to wonder what good can come of treating paying customers like this. A backlash? People who would pay if things were priced appropriately stealing? I don’t know, and I don’t pretend to be an expert on things of this nature…but that movie case was making me mental!