No Flash on LoveFilm?
So LoveFilm has just cut-off all its customers who can't run Silverlight. That includes non-Intel Mac and GNU/Linux users. And what about the many non-PC devices that (used to?) have access to the LoveFilm service, like the PS3?
Well I see from the announcement that "this change doesn’t affect or apply to any of our streaming devices (PS3, iPad, internet TVs, etc); only PCs, laptops and Macs."
http://blog.lovefilm.com/uncategorized/why-were-switching-from-flash-to-silverlight.html
And apparently this was done on the insistence of the MAFIAA®, as a "robust anti-piracy measure". But how "robust" is it if half the service is still using Flash, with little prospect of those other devices ever using Silverlight? And how exactly does it benefit the MAFIAA® to cut-off customers and send them running into the welcoming arms of The Pirate Bay?
They didn't really think that one through very well, did they?
One day the MAFIAA® is going to wake up to the fact that DRM and platform-dependent technologies only serve to LOSE revenue. If you take away people's choices, they have no option but to seek "alternative" methods, legal or otherwise, most of which don't send any money in the direction of the publishers.
But then very little of that money ever trickles down to the actual artists anyway, so maybe it really doesn't matter either way. Maybe the only "fair" way of obtaining content is to "steal" it from The Pirate Bay, then send money directly to the artists. That way we get content without restrictions, and the people who actually deserve to be paid for that content get their money.
One thing's for sure: I'll never be a LoveFilm customer. I can't be. LoveFilm has effectively blacklisted me from its service, by refusing to allow my OS access to its content.
Oh well, that's their loss, not mine.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
