In our current digital age many forms of media are rented, under license, have DRM, or are part of a subscription. But what happens if 20 years down the line you want to play something you bought but cant due to its servers being down, your license expiring or other reasons. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Services or their artists could offer ways to get DRM free versions or actually own the product to pay for.
Fighting Deceptive Negative Arguments
Many people might argue the point that is that it will cause piracy, but if you look at piracy as a history you will see that people will pirate no matter what, the only way to reduce piracy is to increase convenience for the consumer. For example, when Netflix became widely available, piracy rates for TV shows and movies dropped significantly.
Another point mentioned commonly is that it is extra work for less money to ensure their products are on a platform that support no DRM (keep in mind steam is a DRM) and while that may be true in some scenarios its not true always. Bandcamp offers a free way to directly sell your music (even in physical form) without any DRM or protection. Same with GOG and itch.io for video games.
DRM servers can shut down and force people to crack a game that they own just to play it. A good example of this is original physical copies of spore. Because the original servers were shut down it was unable to authenticate and you couldn’t play it. People also don’t have to access to internet 24/7 playing a game offline should be an option in every DRM.
Physical versus Digital
In the world of media the better way to be able to be able to ensure you keep what you bought for a long time is to have it both on physical and digital.
What does that mean?
Well for example CDs will eventually rot, vinyls get damaged over time, things break in the physical realm. But that it is also true in the digital realm for multiple reasons, Hard drives wear out, NVMEs get wiped on accident. That is why redundancy is key to ensuring it stays in your collection long after the service disappears. Use back up drives and servers, keep physical media protected. Clean out computer parts, the key to owning media over a long period is to (obviously) just take care of why you buy if you truly care about it.
Preserving Media
Preserving media is an important task, even for someone who just collects as a hobby. Making sure that no failure in hardware causes you to lose precious data is crucial.
Redundancy
Ensure that your data is kept safe by keeping it on an external drive and possibly a cloud storage device to ensure redundancy.
Invest
Use high quality SSDs or HDDs to ensure lower chances of hardware failure. Make sure to also spend time maintaining your hardware so that it doesn’t fail in the future.
Find a place to store physical media like CDs, DVDs, or Blu-rays that is cool and dry to prevent damage from heat and humidity.
Formatting
For certain things like books, manuals, or music, ensuring they or saved in a consistent file format so you can easily use any of them. For example converting all digital books to .epub format, because you like it better, or using .wav for all of your music.
Organize
Ensure both your digital and physical libraries are kept organize so you can find exactly what you are looking for. Some tools like Jellyfin can help you organize and have easy access to certain parts of your library. Using things like Jellyfin also allow you to share your library with others in your house who might not be as technologically inclined.
Outro
Overall it is greatly important to truly own your media and keep it safe. True ownership of media not only benefits you as a consumer but also supports a more sustainable and ethical digital ecosystem. By prioritizing the preservation of your digital assets, you ensure that your collection remains intact and accessible, free from the constraints and uncertainties imposed by DRM and licensing restrictions. This proactive approach ultimately empowers you and contributes to the preservation of our shared digital culture.