More than 2,000 years ago, an ancient Greek king lost a war by winning it. His name was King Pyrrhus of Epirus. His army won against the Romans in 280 B.C., but the victory was expensive. Many of his men died. And the Romans kept coming, forcing him to fight a second battle, which caused him to lose even more men. Overall, more Romans than Greeks died in the battle, it didn’t matterKing Pyrrhus’s Greek army was decimated.
And so the phrase “Pyrrhic victory” was coined. It is possible to win the battle and yet lose the war. I believe the ancient Greeks and Romans have relevance to today’s conflicts regarding intellectual property issues, particularly concerning digital rights management (DRM). By fiercely enforcing their IP rights in an environment of rapidly changing technology and means of distribution, content owners may be putting themselves on the losing side of a long and exhausting war.
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