Gadgetory

from almost the moment digital media became a thing we've seen efforts to make shirt movies video games and tacky music videos with people in parachute pants aren't passed around illegally from ominous-looking piracy warnings on films to songs telling us not to copy that floppy it's no secret that the companies who produce content see the folks who consume it passing around their stuff as a serious problem and not too long ago well they stopped asking us nicely but somewhat nicely and decided to take matters into their own hands by limiting what users could and could not do with their copies of madmen by implementing a technology called digital rights management or DRM but how does it work and why does it bother people so much now most early DRM existed in the form of encryption and decryption keys so your DVD would have all the content on it but it would be scrambled and then your DVD player would have a key that allows it to descramble it but the problem with having all these keys out there is eventually someone's going to figure out how to hijack the key and use it in a way that it wasn't intended so we've got a lot more stuff available in the DRM Arsenal today one very common type that you should be familiar with if you buy music on iTunes or games using a service like Steam is online authentication many games and programs control the way that they're used by binding purchases to a specific account then requiring the program to check with a remote server that the device or account in use is authenticated before letting the media be played back or in some cases even installed so even if you've got all the files you're more out of luck than Sonic the Hedgehog at the bottom of the lake thanks to well also much more advanced encryption schemes that exists today some particularly obnoxious online protection schemes require constant phoning home during use which offers greater copy protection but also means that you can't play at all if something happens to your connection some only legitimate users will have to contend with since Pirates will have figured out a way to disable the feature but what if you're watching me these are listening to music many streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix use some form of DRM to prevent people from downloading things to their hard drive to use without a subscription and although some people have found workarounds many of them don't offer the same level of quality as you'd have with a legit copy and then of course there's physical media physical media like blu-rays and DVDs is still mostly stuck in the encryption and decryption key paradigm since they're intended to be played back on players that might not actually have an internet connection but there are other schemes like region locking that's been around for many years that prevent discs from being played in other parts of the world so at least if piracy is rampant here these guys over here won't be able to playback that content unless of course it's ripped in a more sophisticated manner of course people usually don't like it when they're told what they are or are not allowed to do with stuff that they bought and this has set off a furious debate as to just how much DRM is appropriate and even the ongoing arms race between coders trying to defeat the RM locks and music movie and game studios trying to develop more hacks or proof versions of copy protection and this was partially responsible for a famous law in the United States called the DMCA which made it illegal to break any sort of DRM a huge eff due to users who feel like they should be able to do what they want with the things they've paid for especially when it's not for infringing purposes like creating digital backups in the event of a fire or to be played back on alternate devices like their phones if they only own a DVD which obviously isn't going to fit in a phone or accessing titles without an internet connection and then of course they're butting heads with the content distributors who say that making things available without DRM will lead to rampant piracy in an era where people can torrent an entire season my little in just a few minutes so who's right here well as more and more of what we enjoy goes digital there's no doubt that both new technologies and new policies that try to strike the right balance will continue to be tested and I hope a happy medium can be found but if not don't worry I don't plan on encrypting tech quickie anytime soon speaking of a happy medium Linda calm is the medium online we're with a membership there's a form of DRM right there buddies access to the page DRM you can watch and learn from top experts who are passionate about teaching they've got thousands of video courses that you can stream on demand to learn on your own schedule and at your own pace you can browse course transcripts to follow along or search for an answer and skip to that point in the video you can take notes as you go and refer to the later you can download the tutorials more digital rights management and watch them on the go including access on your iOS or Android device create and save your favorite playlists and customize your learning path or share with friends and all that good stuff so head over to lynda.com and get a free trial today all-you-can-eat for 10 days and if you decide you like it then it starts at just $25 a month for a membership so I think that pretty much wraps it up guys thanks for watching liked it if you liked it dislike the video if you thought it sucked leave a comment if you have suggestions for future fast as possible just like this one and don't forget to check out our other channels too we did a recent video where I actually water cooled a MacBook so you guys are going to want to check that shiz out if you're in Ted water cooling MacBooks it's also just kind of entertaining