Gift cards as DRM’ed cash

Digital Rights Management offers, some people’s minds, a way to do less with something that we have paid for. For example, a CD without DRM restrictions can be played on a CD player, ripped to a computer, mixed into new songs, put onto a CD-ROM with tons of other songs, or toted anywhere on an iPod.

A DRM-encumbered DVD, on the other hand, can only be played on a DVD player. It may not legally be ripped, mixed into a new movie, or be put onto a PSP or other portable device. Material with DRM allows you to do less with that material than you could without the DRM restrictions.

This recent article, 10 Reasons Gift Certificates make Horrible Gifts, uses similar language to talk about gift cards. In similar effect, a gift card allows you to do less with your money than you could do with cash or a check.

By purchasing a gift card,  you enter an exclusive agreement with one vendor only. The money spent is no longer valid at any other venue. A Best Buy gift card can’t be spent at Starbucks or Old Navy. The gift card can’t be deposited in the bank to be spent in the future (many gift cards expire or decrease in value over time).

In this was, gift cards allow us to DRM our own money. It’s a way to give money to someone without actually giving the flexibility and freedom that cash offers.