Alan De Smet (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} alan_de_smet) wrote,@ 2007-08-11 10:14:00 |
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| Entry tags: | copyright, drm |
Google takes purchased videos away from buyers
Some pro-DRM people figure that all of the worries are just whiners. After all, if they "buy" lifetme access to a video from a big company, say, Google, there is no realistic risk that they'll lose access to the thing they bought. Except when Google decided to shut down the program. Sure, you'll get a refund but you didn't want a refund, you wanted the product you thought you bought. Furthermore, it's not a real refund, instead you're getting credit on Google's online payment system. Like Divx (the DVD competitor, not the video compression format), people had only "bought" lifetime access to sometime suddenly discover that lifetime actually means "until the provider decides to stop supporting it."
DRM and closed standards put you at the mercy of your provider. Google screwed their customers. Microsoft screwed their customers.
