Comment Number:	539814-00089
Received:	1/8/2009 1:43:53 PM
Organization:
Commenter:	James Kennedy
State:	MI
Agency:	Federal Trade Commission
Rule:	FTC Town Hall to Address Digital Rights Management Technologies - Event Takes Place Wednesday, March 25, 2009, in Seattle
Attachments:

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Comments:

I am strongly opposed to Digital Rights Management. After the consumer purchases music or video from a vendor, they should be allowed to do what they wish with that material. I recently changed my media player program from iTunes to VLC, because iTunes was a huge drain on my older computer. However, when I switched I lost several albums worth of music, and several television shows I purchased from Apple, because I was no longer using their software. DRM restricts legitimate customers--i.e. the people who actually buy their content from vendors. It doesn't stop piracy, almost as soon as one of these media companies devises a new encryption for their media, it's already decryptable. DRM doesn't hurt the illegal torrenters or pirates--at the most it's a mild inconvenience for them. It hurts the average consumer.