5 comments

• 

  Noel Le

  2 years ago

  ***The presence of DRM in this case hurts everyone: it hurts OK Go by reducing the number of people who will learn about their music. It hurts VH1, whose website is made less useful to potential visitors. And it hurts Mac users, who are excluded from using the site.***
  
  Man, you must have been absolutely intent on accessing the music from VH1 with your Mac. Most users would just go to another website. That would provide substitutional relief, unless you find some inherent benefit in getting music from VH1 that far outweighs other resources. You're thinking is similar to: "I found an open parking spot, but wow, the spot is too small for my car, rather than simply park somewhere else I'll examine and hypothesize how it would be beneficial to everyone if the spot was larger."
• 

  dennis parrott

  2 years ago

  Noel - you are missing the point. the layer of CRAP that VH1 slapped on OK Go's video was TOTALLY UNNECESSARY. the video was unprotected. why did VH1 feel a need to protect something that was unprotected??
  
  all that VH1 is accomplishing is alienating a portion of their userbase by cooperating with Microsoft's crude attempts at platform lock-in. why commercial websites (who theoretically at least) want to achieve the broadest user base & capture the most eyeballs use proprietary plugins and multimedia formats is completely beyond me. it is really hurting their business with mac users and linux users (don't get me started about how far the linux flash player is behind the current pee-cee release...).
  
  as we roll into the age of MS Vista and start to see Microsoft and others try to tighten their grip over the "user experience" (just who is "trusted" when you have TCPA running anyway?) and people will force this issue to a head if significant numbers of them exit the Windows building for other platforms (and i really hope we do!).
• 

  j

  2 years ago

  if it makes you feel any better, i've been told that vh1 will have vspot open to mac users within a couple of months. i can only imagine this means that the drm has been updated, not that it's been removed. though maybe not. i assume that the drm is something that was imposed upon them by the labels, not something that was self-inflicted, and maybe with the labels suddenly playing ball with youtube, that will change.
• 

  eee_eff

  2 years ago

  Man, you must have been absolutely intent on accessing the music from VH1 with your Mac. Most users would just go to another website.
  
  Well, there just needs to be one dedicated individual to go there and correctly configure their *nix system to read those files, and post to the right newsgroup, and other users, for example those who use free software will all know how its done.
  
  The motivation for doing so? Love of a challenge, obtain the respect of your peers, these all feed into progress, and freedom.
• 

  thephantommilk

  2 years ago

  hmm... you know, Ok Go and DRM have a long history. If you search the New York Times website for an Op-ed by Damian Kulash (Ok Go's lead singer), you'll see.
  
  anyways, I'm pretty sure this is something that would be in the "contract" or whatever makes the deal between record labels and vh1 for airplay, etc.
  
  I don't think its something that can be helped by anyone, really. they've all got it into their heads that DRM is needed, so that's what'll happen until they all figure out the reality.