DRM should be abolished. it makes no sense for many reasons, but one reason is that the consumers that are really being hurt by DRM are those who are actually paying for content.

my most recent experience of buying a movie was a great example of how to piss off a customer. i rented an HD version of "The Lookout" through my Xbox360 (don’t ask me why this specific movie. i was desperate and the content selection was poor… due to DRM).

it was a progressive download (4.5Gb file), so after a few minutes it told me that i could start playing the movie. 30min into the movie it stopped. the download speed did not keep up with the movie playtime… i gave it a few more minutes to buffer and tried again. i was able to watch a few more minutes before it stopped again.

we went to sleep.

the day after (at about the same time in the evening) we sat to continue watching the movie. we were able to watch about 10min before the movie stopped and said the license has expired (it is a 24hr rental from the time you start watching the movie, and they don’t care if the download finished or not).

this really pissed us off.

i wrote an email to the company explaining the situation and asking for either a refund or that they give me more time to watch the movie.. after a couple of days i got a semi-automated response, suggesting i call customer service.

calling customer service proved be a disappointing (yet expected) waste of time. the service rep did not understand what my problem was, kept wanting to connect me to the "network and connectivity" department, and said that they don’t give refunds.

i gave up. doesn’t worth the waste of time and aggravation.