Flash vs DRM vs drm free WMV?

[TropixxxStudios]

DRM is a waste of time and money. DRM companies are professional money wasters and even they will privately admit that you don't need their service.

It doesn't do any of the things that it's supposed to do... (like protect your content from being pirated) and it does things you don't want it to do (like preventing your paying customers from viewing your content).

I think that DRM does protect your content from 99% of the users that might be tempted to share your work on a file sharing basis, yahoo group or otherwise. I do not think that any DRM solution is perfect, and of course there is ALWAYS going to be someone that finds a way around whatever DRM you are using.

DRM doesn't work and it never did. It never will.

I think that was true maybe two years ago, or even a year ago, but I think that different solutions have been presented (like FLASHER DRM) that works.

I remember sitting in a seminar a few years ago with a guy telling the audience that they would all go to jail for providing porn to minors if they didn't use his service. He admitted to me later that it was something that he just came up with as a scare tactic.. even HE knew it was bullshit.

Sounds like he was just an asshole. God knows the industry is full of them.

When all the big sites like Sean Cody, Corbin Fisher, Fratmen, Jake Cruise and Randy Blue were all using DRM, our content was ALL over the torrents and file sharing sites. Using DRM didn't slow the pirates at all.

Well, DRM is not a solution for everyone. Of course there will always be the guys that target the big dogs like Sean Cody, Corbin, Fratmen, et.all. You have TONS of content that make ripping you off worth the risk. (In their eyes.) And of course, those that look for free porn will NEVER pay for porn anyway, so DRM is more of a "Lets keep the honest ones honest."

But the number one reason people gave me for leaving our site was that they couldn't get our movies to play. The number one reason for people calling up and asking for refunds was that the DRM conflicted with their Firewall or their security settings.

We have NEVER had an issue yet with this using FLASHER. Hmm...maybe a new technology has arrived that might be worth looking into?

When we dropped DRM our membership went up. Noticeably. But I don't see any more or less on the file sharing networks or torrents.

Interesting. But again, none of our members seem to complain.

I know how annoying it is to see your stuff get stolen but all I can say is that if you want your site to make money, you need to spend less time and energy fighting people who dont' want to pay for your content and spend more time and energy catering to the people who DO.

This is perhaps the most valid point. But, all I can say is this, with FLASHER, it is really not that much time or energy used to "fight" it. You simply send your content off to PPVNetworks, and in about a week, it is up on your site and running.

I guess in closing, all I can say is that I used to be very much opposed to DRM. But after seeing what PPVNetworks had that was different from everyone else, I gave it a try, and am pleased with the results.

As far as cost? Well, I got a sweat deal and I am not sure everyone else would get the same one...but it is a lot more reasonable than you might think. I would at least look into it. (Even you Jasun, might want to re-look into FLASHER from PPV.)

- Michael