as far as offering free content in exchange for mandatory commercials (which is no worse than TV without a DVR) but of course it is still too limited in content to call it a success. But overall it's very obvious that the entertainment industry does not get it. Every positive step they have made towards a compromise of mere fairness has been done while kicking and screaming every step of the way.
Really, all people want is the ability to watch whatever they want whenever they want wherever that want. And most people are willing to either pay a fair fee for that ability or put up with commercials in exchange for making it free. It's not even DRM per say that turns people off, it's the fact that the terms of ALL mainstream media's DRM prevents people from obtaining their "whatever, whenever, wherever" goals. Hulu comes the closest, they at least do a good job of covering the "wherever" goal, and "whenever" isn't bad, though movies do expire eventually. But as I said, the choices are too limited, though that wouldn't be a problem if whomever holds the copyrights to other movies/shows were to have a similar model as Hulu.
Drew Wilson at Zero Paid points out that Napster celebrates its 10th birthday this month. The Globe and Mail takes a deeper look in its Download Decade series. In the last decade, iTunes, Amazon, and various subscription music services have demonstrated there’s a vast audience more than willing to pay for entertainment downloads given the right mix of value and convenience, though pricing and freedom from DRM remain sticking points. At the same time, lawsuits against individual alleged file sharers march forward, and the entertainment industry has not relented in its pursuit of what it perceives as Napster’s successors (e.g., Pirate Bay, Real DVD). Which prompts me to wonder: in the ten years since Napster sent the entertainment industry its wake-up call, has anything fundamentally changed?
[Update:] Or as Bob Lefsetz puts it: “So I just don’t understand this ten year period. What did the rights holders prove?”
