l-dopa

Most people understand that there is, already in place, digital right management (DRM) systems that can key specific media files to your hardware. Both iTunes Music Store files and Windows Media files are encoded in such a way that files encoded with DRM will play only on a couple of your devices. In any case, the technology certainly exists today to create a downloaded file that only plays on your computer.

As Digital Rights Management becomes more commonplace and more ubiquitously embedded into the devices we own, what if our media devices begin to requre DRM signed files, and as such what if these DRM’d files gift the media companies with the ability to charge you — specifically you — an individually specific price for the ability to view/listen to/experience a media file on your hardware? Consider this nightmarish scenario:

Imagine if in a couple years, you got profiled by iTunes 9.0 as a “sci-fi fan”. As a result, maybe the cost for you to download and view a personalized, DRM’d copy of “Space Epic 4021″ goes up a dollar. They know you’ll pay! They have the records to prove it.

And conversely, a user who is not profiled as a sci-fi fan — maybe they’ve proven to like watching dramas and romantic comedies — maybe they get a deal on “Space Epic 4021″ because it’s not normally the kind of movie they like, however, getting a dollar off on it might actually entice that user to buy it.

Of course, I suspect what really happens in this scenario is that the price goes up for everyone and they give “discounts” to targeted customers. Being targeted for a “discount” is not as creepy as being targeted for a “price hike”.

This is not just hypothetically plausible; this is completely and 100% technologically possible today. And I will predict this: a sliding-payment scale is the logical end-point of DRM-encumbered media files. This is just yet another reason why open formats are so important, and yet another reason why the Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005 is garbage*.

~jeff

* and here’s where to contact your representative to tell them.