What's even crazier is that we get the negative of DRM but none of the upside. I have a 4k hdmi 2.0 TV without hdcp 2, so no 4k content without the "splitter". Also any interoperability issue is a "catastrophic" failure (as in at best no content, at worst no hdmi output at all). And yes they do happen, either because of broken software implementation (some TV don't reset their hdcp state machine when switching hdmi source), or just dumb electrical issue (i2c - and cec - have a habit of dying because of leaking charges, and one needs to unplug everything for 10 min to fix it)
That's video DRM for you.
Upside? There is no, and never was, an upside. Not for the user, and not for anyone else. Video DRM literally never worked.
Nonetheless, it exists, and it makes things worse for everyone by existing.
I even occasionally get audio issues on Netflix (AppleTV plugged into Samsung 4k oled tv), which I assume are due to some kind of DRM, though never dug into it. Sometimes when switching inputs (firetv stick / AppleTV stick), or switching content on AppleTV between different apps, the Netflix content audio just stops working. All app UI sounds work correctly, but no audio once you hit play. Toggling the AppleTV audio settings a few times between dolbyAtmos and standard stereo usually brings it back, so I assume it has something to do drm on the audio tracks, but if anyone has other ideas lmk
I used to run into this often with Paramount+. I don't know if it's still an issue or not because I cancelled over it (plus them showing me ads when I pay for premium).
When I worked in music streaming I made these arguments all the time. The labels would agree with us wholeheartedly about how shitty DRM was but said they demanded it because the artists demanded they do "something" to stop the copying.
https://youtu.be/z8K08AcVru0?t=627
I assume it has an upside for whoever invented it since they can sell it to everyone
This is how the world works. If you want to get rich, you can sell something that doesn't work, to rich people who believe it does. That's basically how YCombinator works.
The only direct upside to DRM is for the IP owner.