Steve Jobs (co-founder, c.e.o and all-round main-man at Apple Inc.) just posted a very telling article regarding digital rights management (or D.R.M. – the funny business that goes on between the iTunes Store and your non Apple devices; the reason you can’t buy on ‘iTS’ and play on a Creative Zen etc.). The article is an odd one, firstly Steve Jobs doesn’t often write publicly these days, I’ve not read an interview with him for a long-while (not Product/Sales related). Secondly – when it comes to bitching, in the past, its only when talking about lame ass hacks (Vista… is it for real?) that Jobs becomes infuriated in a such a constructive way; to Vista- Apple offer a few words of disdain but at their core they know they have a better product and are truly consumer-friendly: IT IS MICROSOFT WHO REQUIRE (on your installation of a new OS): A PRODUCT KEY, AN ACTIVATION CODE – AND PHONE-HOME SOFTWARE TO TELL M$ WHETHER YOU’RE LEGAL :D. Apple know you might want to copy that install DVD, maybe you do want to backup your whole computer onto a hard-disk for easy recovery; they trust their customers. That’s why I always Knew iTunes Store D.R.M was never their suggestion. It was nothing to do with selling more iPods… I’m rambling. I’m drunk. Over to Steve:
He asks the music industry to get with the programme and stop forcing apple to use this unpopular and harmful music protection. Back in the day, Steve Jobs made the point to the record industry that if iTMS was ever going to work 99 American cents was the max people would pay for downloadable tracks. for sure- the whole enterprise wouldn’t work nor compete against napster and other illegal sites (back then :D). he was right, and Apple faught the music industry when they asked for a larger cut. now that Steve Jobs has their attention he pleads:
This is the current state of affairs in the industry, and customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices…
The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors… [this] involves disclosing some of [DRM's] secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. [READ: THE TIME BILL GATES STOLE MACINTOSH OS]… Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players.
Hmm, where’s he going (throughout the article Jobs’ lists the alternatives):
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…
BANG!
…music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free [on C.D.'s which cannot use DRM], what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.
But who give’s a hoot about the Music Industry. If people want to listen to music, let them. If your iPod breaks, you shouldn’t ever have to worry about your music being unlistenable because you don’t have Sony’s permission. Those bastards. Apple agree- and I see two endings: Apple the Music Label or Sony et. al. getting with it; dropping the clause in their agreement with the iTunes Store that ‘their’ *COUGH SPLUTTER* music be DRM-ed and Secure – all tha bull. Bets on. [I'm betting on Apple Music Corp. the Second!]
