Apple could have avoided this issue entirely by allowing users to download the content without any DRM to a storage provider of their choice (ie, Dropbox, or local storage).
Apple is big enough that if they told the MPAA "unless you let us distribute your movies DRM-free, we're not selling them to consumers", the MPAA would probably budge.
> Apple is big enough that if they told the MPAA "unless you let us distribute your movies DRM-free, we're not selling them to consumers", the MPAA would probably budge
I think it's the opposite. There's no chance at all that they'd do that because Apple would only be hurting themselves (and likely directly destroying Apple TV in some way) and the existing industry assumptions about DRM and privacy are entrenched, if not core.
We are a long ways away from when you played ball with iTunes or you didn't play digital music ball at all.
They would also likely have legal and PR pressure to exert against such a move. Regardless of whether Apple is or isn't a monopoly, they definitely don't want a billion dollar industry going after them in that angle right now.
Apple is strong enough to offer iTunes music without DRM, so I'm not sure why you're letting them off the hook here. They could do it, they just choose not to.
I disagree. Piracy was and still is very much a service problem. Just because people would have access to DRM-free movies does not mean they would automatically fire up bittorrent and start trading torrent files with their friends. That's still far too inconvenient.
I have lots of DRM-free games on GOG for instance. So do people I know. We've never had a single thought about pirating these. We're grown ups, we don't have time for that kind of thing.
This line of reasoning is why we have invasive drm that doesn’t work. It’s just another case of drm only hurting legitimate customers and not stopping piracy even in the slightest.
