Digital Rights Management (DRM) has seemingly become a four letter word these days, or at least it evokes some four letter words from some frustrated consumers.  Jeff Vogel who is both an avid consumer and producer of video games has had some nasty things to say about DRM in the past, but he he penned a few kind words for DRM in his most recent blog.

Jeff writes:

“Compare that to the games I sell. I charge $28 for a new game. I would LOVE to charge ten bucks. But, to stay in business, I’d have to triple my sales, and that won’t happen. Would sales go up? Sure. Would they TRIPLE? Almost impossible.

I have minimal DRM. People can transfer their registration to someone else if they want. I even have a one year money back guarantee if someone is unhappy. I’ve tried to be ethical in all the ways I want as a consumer. The result? My games get pirated like crazy, and I have to charge a lot to stay in business. I have a situation where honest people have to pay lots of money to subsidize the people who rip me off. The good people pay to buy games for the bad.

This, of course, infuriates me.”

Jeff pointed out that games on XBox Live aren’t pirated and they can sell for much cheaper because they can sell enough copies to still make enough money to stay in business.  This of course is due to the fact that video game consoles are closed hardware/software platforms where as the Personal Computer (PC) is an open system where the owner has control of the hardware and software.

DRM isn’t so easy to make effective when one does not control the hardware/software stack from top to bottom, and even small attempts to increase control is met with heavy resistance from the PC’s owner and they have a right to do so.  But Jeff has an excellent point that we should not forget the purpose of DRM which is to ensure that digital property isn’t pirated and that it has real benefits for consumers.  The challenge of course is to make sure that DRM is painless enough that the vast majority of consumers won’t even notice it.