Here is yet another example of how DRM ultimately screws the end user and potentially drives people that are willing to pay good money for content to less-than-legal methods of acquiring it. This is the story of a user who subscribes to Netflix’s streaming movie service. When he upgraded his PC with an HD monitor, DRM said no-no.

“When I tried to launch a streaming movie, I was greeted with an error message asking me to “resetâ€? my DRM…
When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft’s DRM sniffing program access to all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM. This means that I would lose all the movies that I’ve purchased from Amazon’s Unbox, just to troubleshoot the issue.”

It always amazes me at the steps companies make to ensure their content will be as hard as possible for users to access…in their haste to protect content from piracy, they potentially drive even more users to piracy out of sheer frustration. Fortunately, some major companies are starting to see that DRM hurts more than helps. A number of labels have dabbled in DRM-free digital music, and it seems that Sony BMG is the latest to agree that DRM can be bad for consumers.