The slow death of DRM

[Megalith]

in an article here Steve gordon writes on why DRM is bad for the music business

Today, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that EMI is in negotiations with several digital music services to sell unprotected MP3s of its catalogue. Jobs was motivated at least in part by legal actions against Apple in Europe and the US as discussed below. But whatever his motivation, Jobs is right: DRM has been a disaster for the recording business. This article will outline the brief but sad history of DRM, the current legal attacks on it, and the reasons why the recording business would be far better off without it.

 

It looks like DRM is set to become a thing of the past, and i for one will be cheering that i will be able to download something legally from the net and put it on my MP3-stick and be able to listen to it. or copy it onto a cd and listen to it on my multimedia system :)

[GorunNova]

Agreed... about effin' time.  This is one hydra that needs all it's heads chopped off. -_-'

[Tenebrae]

I think it has been generally agreed that Jobs had seen which way the wind was blowing and facing the prospect of a slap on the wrist decided to come up with a big ol' lie, along the lines of "Gee wiz, those nasty music companies FORCED us to make sure that itunes could only be used in conjunction with ipods!" despite the fact other online retailers don't force such draconian DRM on us.

[Guest c4evap]

I'll be glad when it dies a painful death as well. Until then...if I can't copy a song I like from one of my own legally purchased CDs for my MP3 player...I'll continue to use Total Recorder. There's always a work-around!

 

B)

[S0V13T]

Oh come on, Jobs is just saying what people wants to hear.

 

Think about it.

 

1) Jobs owns Apple.

 

2) Apple owns the iPod (80+% of the portable audio device market)

 

3) Apple owns iTunes / The iTunes Store.

 

4) iTunes purchaced audio, and even Creative Commons licenced podcasts have DRM embedded in them.

 

5) Jobs says "Hey man, we only sell our stuff with DRM becuase the RIAA makes us" and people act as if he's some kind of "power to the people freedom fighter", while he's making millions from DRM hardcoded iPods, and DRM encoded audio.

 

 

If Jobs REALLY wanted to talk the talk, and walk the walk, he'd take the DRM out of his products, THEN make a fuss about other companies DRM.

[Tenebrae]

What do you expect? People to rationally evaluate what he's said and actually not take it at face value?

 

In my experience, Apple lovers are often prone to bouts of rampant fanboy behaviour i.e. the suspension of logical thought. Naturally, that's extended doubly to Jobs...

 

As if you'd expect a majority shareholder to stand up and say "Apple has used its stranglehold on the online music market to expedite a self-reinforcing monopoly for both itunes and the ipod and used DRM as a means to that end." although, I suspect that even if Jobs did say that, Apple fans would still applaud.

 

Bottom line, he's doing his job... it's simply unfortunate that so many people are eating up the blatant propaganda.

[S0V13T]

It's an old mantra for people that pirate MP3's "Oh, Metallica already made their money, so it's morally okay to download their albums."

 

I wonder if Steveo will hold a press conference soon and say "Oh, we at Apple have already made our money from the sales of iPods and iTunes. So we're going to sell our hardware at cost plus labor (Chinese sweatshops), un-DRM all the content, and tell THE MAN to go F himself!"

 

If that ever happened, I for one will not only ditch Linux, and buy a Mac, but I'll actually buy stuff off the iTunes Store, instead of using it as a catolouge of "oh hey, I should go look for a torrent for that"

[Hilander72]

I'd would be so surprised that I might even choke while eating an apple, if Jobs doesn't license iTunes and make a few more bucks. He'll for sure select a company that belives they can make a heap load of money certain to fail enterprise. I even came up with a name: uTurn.