Duke Archives - ETCentric

Hasbro Reaches Out to Fans for New Transformer Character

By emeadows
April 22, 2013

Hasbro announced its “Fan Built Bot” poll to help kick-off the Transformers 30th anniversary celebration scheduled for 2014. The global poll to create the next Transformer character is open to all age groups and runs until May 5th. The fan designed Transformer will be featured in new comic books and be a part of the “Thrilling 30” special edition collectible action figures from Hasbro. Continue reading Hasbro Reaches Out to Fans for New Transformer Character

Could Removal of DRM Restrictions Actually Decrease Music Piracy?

By Rob Scott
October 13, 2011

New research from Rice and Duke universities challenges conventional wisdom by suggesting that the removal of digital rights management restrictions can actually decrease music piracy.
“Marketing professors Dinah Vernik of Rice and Devavrat Purohit and Preyas Desai of Duke used analytical modeling to examine how piracy is influenced by the presence or absence of DRM restrictions,” explains the press release. “They found that while these restrictions make piracy more costly and difficult, the restrictions also have a negative impact on legal users who have no intention of doing anything illegal.”
“In many cases, DRM restrictions prevent legal users from doing something as normal as making backup copies of their music,” said Vernik, assistant professor of marketing at Rice. “Because of these inconveniences, some consumers choose to pirate.”
According to the research paper, copyright owners don’t necessarily benefit from less piracy. “Decreased piracy doesn’t guarantee increased profits,” Purohit said. “In fact, our analysis demonstrates that under some conditions, one can observe lower levels of piracy and lower profits.”
The press release includes a compelling statement from the late Steve Jobs: “Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy.”