Not only in games is DRM an irritating nuisance. This month the public broadcast service in the Netherlands introduced DRM to the programs that are viewable on their website NPOStart.nl.

I used to download TV-programs from that site to view at my leisure, creating a library on my laptop of programs I yet wanted to see, with my media player remembering the exact file position to continue viewing where I left off (due to my autistic spectrum disorder I lack the concentration to watch a program in one setting, I view programs in bits of about 10 minutes, spreading viewing a program over several days, usually while having dinner).

But now with the DRM the download program can't download programs from the site no more. The main reasons, so it is said on Dutch fora, is that by forcing people to view the stream from the site, ads are inserted before you can view the video, something I didn't need to bother with by downloading the program.

How is DRM-free viewing in your country? Is it possible or are TV programs too being locked behind DRM? And in what places can you download movies and documentaries DRM-free?

Welcome to 2006. There's even DRM for your coffee pods now.

As for something along what you described, the nearest project I could think of was Gutenberg, and that's only for books.

Considering 'No advertisements' is a perk of their subscription scheme this seems rather to be expected.

This is pretty much the way things are in Finland. There are a few commercial streaming services, and if you're not willing to pay up, you'll have to watch ads before the show and in between every ten minutes or so. The ads are played in a higher volume than the rest of the content too, so you can't escape them by a visit to the fridge. The system doesn't know if your device is muted or not though (although that should be technically possible).

I know that some digital TV show and movie rental businesses allow you to purchase at least some content, but haven't looked into whether you can download your purchases or if it's just an indefinite license to stream.

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/video

same goes with printer ink aswell i think now

Thanks! A helpful link.

John Deere Tractor company recently had a lawsuit about whether people are allowed to repair the tractors they purchased from the company, and/or change the computer programming in the proprietary computer on board. The idea is that only John Deere can work on these machines because of the copyrighted code in the computer systems. Sounds like bullshit to me. Once I buy something I can do what I like with it except redistribute it, essentially.

Similar situation with Bird scooters. They pop up in cities, get impounded and people buy them legally at impound auctions. Bird tried suing people who were selling bypass chips claiming it was circumventing their DRM on the scooters.

Remember when you used to have to put a quarter into a machine just to make a phone call?

Yeah, I guess most of you wouldn't remember that. :P

What kind of machine?

So that's what those are for. It just sat there on my counter doing nothing until one day I thought (and admittedly took a cue from Black Books) 'hey, I think I know, it's a cigarette lighter', and although it turned out to be rather cumbersome, it worked.

Guess no one remembers the time when you had to throw quarters into your gasmeter to get gas for the light in your house. I doubt anyone's still alive to remember that day. But what does it have to do with DRM?

DRM on YouTube as well? Tried to download YouTube video's of Dick Dale with FlashVideoDownloader installed in Firefox, but all video's I tried so far gave a 'Nothing Found' error message.

Try youtube-dl-gui or 4K Video Downloader. They are standalone programs.