by Conrad MacIntyre
By Conrad MacIntyre
John Brownlee on the theory that AirPlay Streaming is limited to Macs with Sandy Bridge chips to make use of Intel Insider DRM:
If true, this has got to be infuriating to Mac owners who arbitrarily don’t have an AirPlay-compatible Mac. As is often the case, AirPlay Mirroring on Mac is just another example of how DRM usually only inconveniences legitimate customers, while pirates, as always, figure out a way around the safeguard.
Have no particular issues with storing and moving HD multimedia contents across your computers and mobile devices? Soon you will have some, and Hollywood has just decided to “help” you with a new DRM scheme that will enable an easy way to “buy, store and playback HD versions of movies and TV shows at home or on-the-go, easily and seamlessly”.
One day the studios will realize that DRM is what's killing them, not what's saving them. People who are going to steal are always going to steal. They'll go down to the store and stuff something in their jacket if they can't get it any other way. This is a system designed to punish honest people (A.K.A: Guilty until proven innocent, but there's no way to prove yourself innocent).
It's like when I download a TV app for my iPhone/iPad and try to stream that content to my Apple TV via AirPlay. Nope. I can stream the audio only. BUT if I stole that content off the web and tried to stream it to my Apple TV it would work perfectly AND I'd have the added benefit of no ads. Both approaches are free for me, but one has downsides - i'll give you a hint - it's not the illegal one.
I want to pay for content, but I want to pay a reasonable price for it, and I don't want to have to jump through a bunch of hoops to use it the way I want.
At the risk of belabouring this point I'd like to point you at iTunes Match. People are paying for this service and some of the money is going to artists whose songs are being streamed. Even if those track were stolen they are no getting paid for their work. This is a great example of being creative and having a little faith in humanity.