Why is this so hard to understand?
It seems butt-obvious to me:
There is no future in which bits will get harder to copy.
Before I quote the rest of it, I think it's worth contemplating that simple, declarative sentence and letting it sink in. It seems self-evidently true, and yet the entertainment industries still spend kajillions trying vainly to prevent said bit copying and in Quixotic lawsuits against legions of bit copiers.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. That was a quote from Cory Doctorow, and he can say the rest of it much better than I can.
Instead of spending billions on technologies that attack paying customers, the studios should be confronting that reality and figuring out how to make a living in a world where copying will get easier and easier. They're like blacksmiths meeting to figure out how to protect the horseshoe racket by sabotaging railroads.The railroad is coming. The tracks have been laid right through the studio gates.
Powerful stuff, and hard to argue with, in my opinion. This came to me third-hand from Jackie Danicki, who's quite correct in calling it the "quote of the day," except that I'd go quite a bit farther.