Steve Jobs Taps the Mat on DRM
February 7th, 2007They lost on this one, and They know it.
Via: Apple:
The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.
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. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.
DRM isn’t about piracy. it’s about distribution control, it should really be Distribution Rights Management. If you want to control a market and how much money you can make from it, as well as squeeze out competitors (mostly small guys, cause all the big guys are in on it), you control how it’s distributed.
Ha. They’re not in control of much, actually. Jobs says that most iPods are nearly full, and only 3% of the tracks are DRM enabled. That’s 97% of the tracks lacking “distribution control.”
Actually, they won. Apple was not the ones who wante to DRM music, it was the record companies… did you read the article? Before the iTunes store, and before the iPod apple released macs with CD-ROM burners and iTunes and told people to rip their cds, mix them and burn custom CDs in a national ad campaign. Apple isn’t exactly a big fan of DRM or locking up music– and has pushed for rights that no other online music store provides for their customers.
I find it perplexing that so many anti-DRM people blame apple without ever understanding the history of the situation.
EMI is considering dropping DRM, Yahoo music already dropping it:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-02-12-emi-copy-protection_x.htm?POE=TECISVA