86: Digital Rights Management

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Digital Rights Management

Title text: If you're interested in the subject, Lawrence Lessig's 'Free Culture' is pretty good

Explanation

Digital rights management, or DRM, is a method of controlling digital files, such as by preventing media from playing on any device besides the purchasing device. It is lobbied by organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America, as it would make it more difficult to pirate media, which they claim cuts into their profits. However, DRM is usually disliked by consumers, as it makes it difficult to use their purchased media. For example, if they buy a new computer, there's no guarantee their DRM-covered media will be usable on the new computer. Thus, Hat Guy is threatening to crush the pro-DRM organizations (namely Sony, Microsoft, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and Apple) with a moving wall of ice if they don't stop trying to dictate when, where, and how media can be played (via DRM).

Transcript

[Hat Guy is standing on an advancing glacier]

Hat Guy: Dear Sony, Microsoft, the MPAA, the RIAA, and Apple: Let's make a deal. You stop trying to tell me where, when, and how I play my movies and music, and I won't crush your homes under my inexorably advancing wall of ice.

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Discussion

And cue global warming... Semicolon here (talk) 14:50, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

i might sound daft here, but is the wall of ice explained in any way? it feels like the humour here derives from it, and i'm not sure what to make of it. the explanation focusing on the details of the antipiracy laws and regulations feels a tad superfluous while i feel it doesn't really add anything that explains the joke. again, i'm a romanian, so my grasp of the english language (and the american culture) is below par, so this might be a silly question. feel free to remove my comment here if that's the case. 108.162.254.88 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The idea is that a glacier is impossible to stop if it starts moving simply because it is so massive. This can be compared to the demands of people for DRM-free content, which is equally unstoppable no matter how many politicians the DRM companies bribe. 141.101.99.53 05:00, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

I agree; I think the "ice-wall" is a metaphor for the mass of the consumers. The companies are trying to go against the flow, and it's either bend or break. It's an ice-wall/glacier,, because there are few things in the world more powerful and unstoppable as a glacier. A glacier is also very slow, so it's also saying that although he might not be able to crush them immediately, he will eventually, and they'd better not forget it (no saying how far away he's starting from, either. 108.162.218.118 01:50, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

First thing that came to my mind: ICE == Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics, e.g. in Burning Chrome (by William Gibson); see [1]. IIRC, the book describes ICE as walls closing in on the protagonist's avatar in the virtual (cyber) world. --199.27.128.231 09:36, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

This may be a stretch but I associated this with "Now is the winter of our discontent" from Richard III. Discontent can both be applied to the general dislike and therefore discontent on the users, but also discontent in terms on the dis, meaning negativity and content relating to the digital content. The wall of ice represents the approaching Winter which will continue until the end of the discontent. --Igwarrender (talk) 15:53, 5 November 2015 (UTC)

This could also be a joke that the ice wall isn't actually stoppable by him, or is it?108.162.218.83

It probably is. He's black hat. Knit cap (talk) 12:36, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Game of Thrones / ASoIaF ice wall, anyone? 172.68.58.143 17:36, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

This just in: Major corporations behind global warming to stop threatening walls of ice! OhFFS (talk) 16:21, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Just pointing out that a vague silhouette of a larger Black Hat (and the glaciers as well) can be seen behind the "normal"-sized Black Hat. 172.69.130.225 23:09, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

There is also a faint Cueball standing on the ground with what looks like to be a sword, around halfway under the clouds. 172.70.80.149 23:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

If this is (as it appears to be) from his "drawn on physical paper, then scanned" era, then BH could be part of the recomposition of the original drawing, but it looks possible that the Cueball after-image might have been drawn on the sheet before this one (or this one, in a prior false-start, but more thoroughly erased) and only showing up due to that indentation trick. 172.69.43.229 09:33, 14 June 2024 (UTC)