On the current edition of the Intellectual Property Colloquium podcast, hosted by UCLA (and former Chicago) professor Doug Lichtman, Paul H. and Theo Leffmann Professor of Commercial Law Randy Picker discusses digital rights management with Princeton's Ed Felten. According to Ben Sheffner's Copyrights & Campaigns blog,
Lichtman's interview with Picker focuses on a topic that gets much less
attention than it deserves: how DRM enables pro-consumer business
models. The discussion of how the Microsoft Xbox gaming console's
business model -- artificially low console subsidized by
Microsoft-only games -- is particularly interesting. And Picker takes
the public's dislike of DRM head-on: "They hate it, but that doesn't
mean anything." Picker explains that much of the "hatred" comes from
looking only at the downsides of DRM, but ignoring the benefits:
fostering business models that would be either more expensive or
nonexistent if not for DRM.
You can listen to or download the podcast here.
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