Source

By Matt Kapko - RCR Wireless News

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Digital rights management is an inevitable byproduct of the capabilies consumers now have to store and stream large amounts of information, but for it to function properly it must be virtually invisible to the consumer, Albhy Galuten, vice president of digital media technology at Sony Corp. of America, said in his opening keynote at the Digital Media Summit.

“We all hear the rumors about how DRM is going to be dead, it’s too complicated, it’s too confusing,” he said. “The goal is to have it invisible to the consumer.”

He squarely puts that responsibility on the industry. Media companies must allow consumers to enjoy the content they want on the device they prefer on their schedule, he said.

“This whole personal network could be more convenient, more durable and more flexible,” Galuten said, adding that consumers are frustrated by the lack of interoperability among their multiple devices at home.

“Things change, friction goes lower and lower,” he said, but if the industry doesn’t harness that potential it will miss significant business opportunities in the future.

“The consumer will ultimately figure out how to do it on their own without our help,” he said. “We can morph the business to stop the bleeding.”

Part of the problem is in educating consumers about the people who earn their living on increasingly declining revenues, he said.

“I personally feel that whoever creates something ought to be able to get paid for if they want” and have a say in its distribution, he said.

“Ideally what you want to do is give the artist the tools to create their media … and allow it to flourish,” he said. “How do we get there? Obviously we need to make DRM invisible.”

Ha!

It doesn't need to be "made invisible"
...it just needs to disappear.

They want DRM that's invisible? Very easy to achieve. I should patent it, I guess.

The next time Sony is ready to release an album, they should not actually release it to the public in any form. The digital rights are completely protected and it's completely invisible to the consumer, just like the artist.

Then again, one can look at CD sales and come to the conclusion that DRM is already becoming less visible every day -- at least at the cash register.

He just doesn't get it. DRM is a problem.

"Obviously, we need to make DRM invisible.”

Oh, yeah, like your infamous root-shit?
Obviously, YOU'RE full of shit, too.

As has been posted, DRM (visible or invisible) continues to be a perpetual problem for your industry, and YOU NEED TO BE THINKING OF A GENUINE SOLUTION — LIKE GETTING RID OF THAT CRAP!!!
After all, CDs don't have it.


But, I suppose from an indie standpoint (whose music doesn't come wrapped up in DRM handcuffs), we should be glad the RIAA continues to shoot itself in the foot in various ways (including but not limited to DRM).