Review of VONGO, A Video Download Service
My dad took a look at VONGO, which is a service that offers movie downloads on Windows platform. He basically pans the service because of the DRM, though he does note how easy it is to circumvent the DRM. Seems if you’re going to go through the trouble of implementing DRM, the least you can do is implement it in a way that’s a bit harder to circumvent.
For kicks, I went to the VONGO site on my Mac and got a message saying that because Apple has decided to withhold their FairPlay DRM technology, the service cannot be used on a Mac. Sounds like an opportunity for Microsoft to port their PlaysForSure technology to MacOS to me. There’s also that kid from Sweden who reverse engineered FairPlay and is selling it. Or even better, do away with the DRM entirely and just sell the movies without it.
The one experience I had with buying a PDF file DRM was enough to turn me off of the idea of buying anything with DRM at all. The only way I’ll take something with DRM is if it’s given to me for free. Otherwise, I’ll buy the physical disc/book/whatever. At least that way, I can do what I want with it.
