Hi Let me quickly introduce myself. I’m the Porn Pundit and having way too much time on my hands and having a keen sense of the stock market and way, too much disposable cash, spend my time prowling the web and have looked at a zillion porn sites. In addition, I’m a cheap bastard; I’m a perve, and a voyeur. For those reasons I have chosen to shadow the most honest and second cheapest bastard on the web Sir Rodney, and keep him on his toes! From time to time Ill take my hand from out of my shorts and share pearls of wisdom gathered from too many years of jacking off in an ashtray! ( yeah gross but better then the computer keyboard). Under normal circumstances Ill keep things light and cheery but I must use my first posting to rail against Big Brother and his holding company. I welcome your comments, suggestions, and your opinions. Please feel free to write me at pornpundit@cyberloveplace.com.

Digital Rights Management or DRM for short is a Microsoft scam that allows the publisher to determine to whom, when and how their content, including internet adult entertainment, can be distributed, downloaded, viewed, or copied from the web. Sir Rodney, whom I follow, and trust wholeheartedly has dropped the ball on this one saying in at least one review “at least it’s better then streaming”. At least one internet porn review site, a site that admittedly does not have the clout and respect that the good “Sir” has, has gone so far as to say that DRM “ is not the devil” well I’m here my friends to tell you that it is indeed the devil, he’s here in River City, and any site that employs DRM should be avoided like terrorist jokes at an airport. I fully believe that DRM could mean the downfall of internet porn sites that we know and cherish!

If a site chooses to use DRM licensing and you choose to either download or stream a video those videos will not play on your computer A: if you choose to cancel your membership, B: you are not logged on to the site while viewing, or C: even if you choose to view the video more then the prescribed viewings. In the very near future the technology will be available from Big Brother to allow web masters to encode the vids so as they can not be recorded or captured.

Yes its true every time you join a porn site you run the small risk of giving personnel info such as credit card number (please dear reader I hope you not foolish enough to go the check or 900# route but that’s for a different day), IP address, and home location but at least the information is not shared and perhaps sold by Big Brother Microsoft or one of its partners. Many sites have a privacy policy and those that are concerned with privacy protection can at least slog through this boilerplate and choose whether they feel secure sharing personal information.

With DRM a viewing certificate must be downloaded usually automatically, how nice, each time you view the movie. This certificate or electronic key if you prefer is provided by a third party Microsoft partner (a list my be obtained by doing a Google search under DRM licensing.). You will never get to see THEIR privacy policy for all you know the information can be sold to anyone. To further spread the word Microsoft retains the rights from the partner to “look In” on the information compiled and then they are free to parcel out this information as THEY SEE FIT! Even the name of this licenses is thought provoking Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) indicates that every user has their IP address recorded “ for statistical purposes” (yeah my ass). Global? Do you want to be identified globally! Do you trust Big Brother Microsoft, I don’t!

The privacy issue is not the only outrage! I’m not going to get into the details regarding the doctrine of “fair use” ( do I hear a collective sigh lol) but it has been clearly established that copyright material, as much of the porn you view is, can be copied or viewed so long as the user does not profit nor deny profit from those who own the copyright (i.e. recording or just archiving a super great piece of porn for YOUR OWN USE). Goodbye to one of our rights.

I will go into the fact that those poor soles who still pay for internet access on an hourly basis are now forced to stay tethered to the net and pay the piper for the net time needed to view videos for which you’ve already paid! I will tell you that if either the porn site “goes down’ or the license provider you out of luck!
Ok, ok I’ll give you all a break. I’m very sure that all of you can come up with at least five other excellent reasons for staying away from any site that employs DRM.

There are ways of discovering when the devil is at your wallet. Firstly Sir Rodney has given me his royal oath that he will never hide the truth, just read his reviews. Does the site that you can use only windows media player nine or above to view the vids( oh my another “profit center” for Big Brother )? If so as Monty Python would say “run away, run away”. Nearly all video on demand is using some form of DRM. You’ll have to decide on your own if the material is worth it. Always read the ‘ fine print” or write to the webmaster especially if your ponying up for a months membership.

Ok good readers the sermon is over for the time being. If you’re a legal eagle type I have a whole slew of footnoted sources that have provided some of the meat to this article and again I’m anxious to hear some of your comments. Write at pornpundit@cyberloveplace.com Look for shorter much more up beat musings in the very near future.
“Still searching for the perfect ‘Come Shot’”
-The Porn Pundit

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2005 at 1:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.