Jobs on a DRM-free future

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:32:12 +0000

With the stunning global success of Apple�s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to �open� the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let�s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

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and, having heard him I really wish he'd blog.

His thesis is that Apple keep Fairplay proprietary to protect their rights to sell music from the Big 4 who require DRM on online but (for the most part) not on CD sales. He calls on people to ask the Big 4 to remove the DRM restriction on online music.

What his argument fails to acknowledge is that the music companies are not persuing DRM to protect sales now but to create a strangehold in a CD-free world. At the point where they can stop CD production they hope to have everything safely DRM'd.

Expect Sony/BMG, Universal, Warner, and EMI to hold onto their DRM with a deathly grip.

Curiouser and Curiouser! on steve-jobs

Jobs on a DRM-free future