DECE: Hollywood Still Doesn’t Get It

Hollywood’s been hyping up it’s Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem. In a nutshell, the goal is to create a DRM system that allows for fair use. The problem, of course, is that Hollywood is still trying to keep it’s iron grip on content.

DECE’s aim is that you can purchase a movie once and download other formats for other devices for free. Unfortunately, this still leaves the choice of formats up to Hollywood and leaves us with DRM that can be shut down when companies like MSN, Yahoo, and Walmart deem the profit stream too low.

While it’s promising to see that Hollywood is starting to get it (even if it’s at a pace that makes the mentally retarded look like geniuses), the sad fact is that they still don’t, or refuse to, see the big picture.

What the DECE is trying to do can already be handled with software. If Hollywood would ditch the CSS, AACS, and BD+ crap (and the legal ambiguities involved with breaking them to uphold your personal fair use rights), we’d have more software out there that could take a DVD or BRD and rip and convert the video at the consumer’s will. As the software category matures, the software packages would start competing on ease-of-use, and would include more presets for more devices. Hollywood could concentrate on releasing their movies in the highest definition possible. And you wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not Hollywood is going to support your near-obsolete (Palm Pilot T|X), niche (EeePC with Linux) or brand-new (G1) device.