GeoDRM (Re: [Geowanking] Fwd: [OGC Press Release] Mash-up event to unite leading minds from the geographic information industry)

[Nelson Minar]

> I imagine this drm effort, if it such, will fail just like all the
> others.

Which DRM failures do you have in mind? iPod? Macrovision, which you 
reference later as a failure and yet is shipped in every video device in 
the US? Or maybe Windows Trusted Computing? Too early to say if that 
will be a failure or not, but it sure will be a pain in the neck.

DRM is a technical failure because what they're trying to do is 
technically impossible. But DRM is a business success and, alas, a 
technical impediment that we are increasingly subject to with digital 
video and audio. Even stupid completely compromised DRM like DVD copy 
protection is still deployed widely making things expensive for device 
manufacturers and users. You can't dismiss DRM.

We're at the beginning of the development of some amazing 
location-specific data and services. My biggest fear is that these 
businesses are going to be built where their entire business model is 
"we have the only source of data and we protect it with all the DRM we 
can muster". If that happens, the result will be that a lot of 
interesting legitimate businesses will be impeded and we'll be left 
having to steal data and use modchips to do powerful things with 
geographic data.

PS: I'm not sure if I introduced myself to this list. I'm a software 
guy, most recently from Google and before then a dead Internet startup. 
I'm a total novice to geodata but am getting increasingly excited by 
what I'm finding. I have a blog at http://www.somebits.com/weblog/