Dear Studios: Stop Treating Your Paying Customers Like Thieves

Davis Freeberg recently had some serious DRM hassles, caused by a new HD monitor, that resulting in a recommendation by the Netflix help system to use the Windows DRM reset utility.

Q: What should I do if I see a "Microsoft DRM Software Error" message while instantly watching movies on my PC?
A: It means you must reset your Microsoft Digital Rights Management software. Please call Netflix technical support at 1-866-402-2616 Or, you can solve this problem on your own; click here to download and run the Reset DRM Utility. When you see the dialog box asking what you would like to do with this file, click Run and follow the instructions.

The Reset DRM Utility may remove licenses to other content using Microsoft DRM, so please read the instructions carefully. If you are not comfortable with this, just call us at the number above and we’ll help you through it.

Davis ran the utility, and the program displayed the following warning:

The problem is that Davis (and I) have content we've purchased from Amazon Unbox and other sites, and if you run the utility you could lose the licenses. There is a procedure to backup and restore your media licenses, but when's the last time you thought to backup that movie you downloaded? Why is the burden on the consumer to do this?

So why did Davis have this problem in the first place?

Netflix’s software allows them to look at the video card, cables and the monitor that you are using and when they checked mine out, it was apparently a little too high def to pass their DRM filters.

Because my computer allows me to send an unrestricted HDTV feed to my monitor, Hollywood has decided to revoke my ability to stream 480 resolution video files from Netflix. In order to fix my problem, Netflix recommended that I downgrade to a lower res VGA setup.

As part of their agreement with Hollywood, Netflix uses a program called COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocal). COPP is made by Microsoft and the protocol restricts how you are able to transfer digital files off of your PC. When I ran COPP to identify the error on my machine, it gave me an ominous warning that “the exclusive semaphere is owned by another process.”

My Netflix technician told me that he had never heard of this particular error and thought that it was unique to my setup. When I consulted Microsoft, they suggested that I consult the creator of the program. Since Microsoft wrote the COPP software, I wasn’t sure who to turn to after that.

DRM sucks, and it only hurts the people that pay to buy or rent movies. Davis points out that pirated content isn't affected by the draconian DRM used to protect movies, and as more people upgrade their systems this type of hassle could actually drive people to find unprotected content online.

DRM is the reason we can't use Netflix's Watch Instantly on the Mac or using Firefox, and this is stupid. Make the content interesting, affordable, and portable, and people will gladly pay you for it. Pirates will never pay for it, and the studios are hurting the majority of their customers by attempting to stop a minority. Look at what Apple has done with Fairplay, OS X licenses, and DRM-free music tracks (Amazon and others are offering them, too).

Davis is an early adopter of new technology, but what happens when a typical consumer has issues like this because of DRM? You think they're going to buy movies online with all of the hassles associated with it? Davis probably spent hours tracking this down, and he's very technical.

If the studios are reading this -- please stop treating your paying customers like thieves. The pirates can break anything you throw at them, and since they're not going to buy your stuff anyway, stop wasting our time.

Comments

[paving]

All the more reason to not use Vista.

Seriously, Netflix, get this running in Silverlight. PRONTO.

I know your marketing department is holding up the new release for some big roll-out but it's not helping. Do not underestimate the importance of Mac and Linux accessibility.

[Rick H]

FYI: I believe that DRM backup procedure only works for up to Windows Media Player 10. I have been unable to find a procedure for WMP 11.

[Surt]

"The pirates can break anything you throw at them, and since they're not going to buy your stuff anyway, stop wasting our time."

Amen. BD+, anyone? ARccOS?

[russ]

FYI. There is a way to use Watch Instantly on a Mac. Use VMWare Fusion to create a Windows XP virtual machine with Internet Explorer 7. It works great!

[MCWHAMMER]

That's great news for me, the guy that just bought a VGA cable to connect my laptop to the TV for Watch Instantly.

Great news.

[Fred]

That's scary- the idea that COPP is a filter for any digital data leaving the computer.

Think about it... Why the hell did you buy a computer pre-installed with crippleware? Vista is doing the opposite of what it's supposed to. It's an OS. It helps you manage your data. It shouldn't tell you how to manage your data, and it certainly shouldn't be wasting all your CPU time making sure that you aren't doing what they don't want you to do. That's why VISTA sucks. (And probably why file copy operations in vista take 4 hours for 1 mb files).

[Fred]

I used to like Netflix's Watch Now feature. Back when I could get it to work.

Months later, I'm still trying to figure out why I should need Windows Media Player 11, much less why it refuses to install on my computer.

[Peter]

1-3 times,EVERY DAY,the people that I pay (via NF, who pays them directly) to watch their DVDs, tell me that I better not do something that I've never done, or the FBI will put me in prison or fine me more money than I have.

I care for & enjoy good flicks...I detest the powers that be who produce them.

The movie & music industries have forever turned the public against them.

Peter

Peter

[Edward R Murrow]

"Davis is an early adopter of new technology, but what happens when a typical consumer has issues like this because of DRM?"

This is one of the reasons that there will always be a business driver for B&M.

The vast majority of consumers don't want to mess with this typical hacker sh!t.

I believe the first step will be rental into iTunes, synch with iPod, carry iPod to the big screen, connect the color coded cables to the color coded inputs on big screen, press input select on big screen, watch movie. It can't get simpler than that for initial deployment of internet rental.

[Peter]

btw, Mike...'fraid I won't be posting much in the future...entering some hard to read letters to prove I'm not a machine (which it doesn't) is not worth the trouble...sorry
Peter

[CJ]

Actually I find adding the challenge letters (Type pad CAPTCHA)... a somewhat fun challenge. I'm hitting about 90% on the first try now. And there is a utility app out there somewhere that will read it for you - except it's probably more trouble than it's worth.

[Blazie]

There's a very easy way to avoid this problem. Just refuse to buy and use services from DRMed products until they start dropping the crazy restrictions. Studios will respond when their wallets aren't filled with our money anymore.

[macdude22]

I have a question, hulu.com runs on my mac and undoubtedly has some sort of DRM solution. It appears to run in some sort of Flash application. If NBC can do it surely Netflix can. They've made much more than 400 bucks off this long time Netflix Mac user so use some of my cash I've given you to come up with a solution for me.

[JSov]

I have the exact same issue with a home made dvr I constructed. I have an XP computer with an video card that has s-video out to an analog tv and Netflix Watch now will not work unless I connect a monitor to my computer. Lame!!!

[Ian]

Right on. I couldn't agree more. It's time for media companies like Netflix to stop spending all their time and energy making products less flexible, less powerful, and less user-friendly through DRM. How about putting the user experience first? I'll pay for that.

[Seebee]

Nice entry, and good timing. I just cruised over here as I contemplated re-joining Netflix. I'm thinking about re-joining because I'd like legitimate access to online movies and I wanted to see how the NF online offering was shaping up. And now I can see why I'll have to stick to downloading p2p content (my DVR displays only on hdtv, and that via component).

I can afford to pay, I want to pay, but I have zero interest in spending hours fighting DRM when I can just download unrestricted content.

[Ann]

This DRM stuff is killing me!!!

I do not live in the US anymore so I could care less about the breaking US law and removing DRM for personal use.

DRM no DRM…. I just want to be able to play my media on any platform that I choose. DRM is like going into your local stereo shop and having to purchase a DVD player for each movie studio.

So now I found a great decission - MelodyCan converter (http://www.convert-any-media.com) which helps me to resolve drm-protection problem.

[Old Timer Too]

On Vista - I just had my first (very bad) experience when my daughter got her Christmas present. Many of her programs would not install or run. It was pretty to look at, but she couldn't even get a wireless USB adapter to run (Vista didn't have a driver for it and neither did the manufacturer). So, I purchased an OEM XP Home for her and rebuilt the system using XP Home. Worked great after I got the correct video and sound system drivers for XP and replaced a bad DVD internal disc drive.

Now she's happily doing her thing on it and XP is recognizing all four cores of the quad core AMD processor.

Fun and challenging project while we were visiting her and her family for a week.

DRM and itunes... itunes uses DRM, from what I can tell... it is great for ipods but it is a pain... especially after buying the songs/albums.

[Old Timer Too]

Oh yeah... I hate the FBI threat that I see each time I play a DVD that I bought and paid for!

[Matt G]

My computer doesn't work with Netflix's DRM, but I have an old laptop that does. Then I take a video cable from my big screen HDTV (vizio) and plug it in - works just fine. Of course it's nothing the average consumer is going to want to mess with.

I can't wait until Netflix-ready equipment hits the market and I can skip the extra wires and technology.

[Chefjoe]

I have a homebrew PVR that I was happily using to watch Heroes via the Watch Instantly. The 7600GS card outputs to my 30" HD-CRT via component cables. Sometime in the past couple of days Netflix wanted my computer to upgrade to Windows Media 11 and now I get the cryptic DRM error.

If they'd actually give a detailed error explaining the issue (not giving false hope that it's just a DRM reset away from being fixed) I wouldn't have wasted a few hours looking for solutions online.

Bad, Netflix, Bad!

[Hz]

I also noticed, as Chefjoe did, that Watch Instantly now requires Windows Media 11; version 10 no longer works. Is there a way around it? I don't use Windows Media so I just don't want to upgrade to 11, especially with it forcing you to install Windows Genuine Advantage (another ping back program that can uniquely identify you to Microsoft!!)

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