Ernest Miller has another beauty on DRM: Incredibly Dumb DRM Tactics - iTunes Example #1

"So, here we have a DRM stripping program that is deliberately designed to encourage copyright compliance yet still enable fair use. What does Apple do? They deliberately make such stripping programs untenable...

...This helps encourage copyright compliance, how?"

Matthew Skala of CyberPatrol hack fame has a terrific essay on the colour (or lack of it) of bits and why lawyers and computer scientists don't understand each other. In the computer scientists' universe bits have no colour. In the lawyers' universe, bit must have colour because colour is what they base their reasoning on.

Larry Lessig tells, in the penultimate chapter of his first book Code and other laws of cyberspace, of a lesson he learnt from his uncle about the art of being a good lawyer. It's not about tactics or slight of hand but about using reason, through a story to persuade. Computer scientists and lawyers can communicate but each species needs to improve their use of reason through stories to persuade and help the other understand their respective universes.