I just read a fascinating commentary by Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) speaking out against the critics of their company’s Digital Rights Management encoding – FairPlay. Click here to read.
Everyone is calling for Apple to let them in on the secret of their FairPlay technology so they can make MP3 players that can handle iTunes-purchased songs. In a nutshell, Apple encodes their purchased music with some encryption so you can’t play it on other MP3 players (other than the iPod) as well as not being able to play it outside of the iTunes software.
What does this mean to the average consumer? Well, it means that in 5 years time if I don’t use my iPod, I’ll have to listen to my purchased music on the iTunes software on my computer. What if I don’t want to use iTunes? Tough noogie. I’m screwed. It’s like saying that I can purchase a CD but only play it on a Panasonic brand CD player.
I, for one, think DRM technology is awful. Some CD companies are encoding their CDs with DRM technology to prevent the copying of their albums into any digital format. Let’s take the new Trews album Den of Thieves. Mike bought this album outright but cannot copy the songs to his iPod. Hey, he bought the damn thing, he should be able to do what the heck he wants with it (other than spread it on the Internet en masse). So that’s what I have against DRM. It screws over the actual people purchasing the CDs.
“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.”
Steve Jobs brings up…in my opinion…the best example as to why DRM doesn’t work. Running some rough numbers, he estimates 3% of a person’s music collection (on an iPod) is made up of digitally purchased songs. So basically, the music industries are allowing 97% of their music to be sold without any protection at all. Granted, this is in a perfect scenario where people’s iPods are full of stolen music to begin with.
All in all, I think the music industries have to just give in to the fact that their music will be pirated. End of story. There’s no winning the battle. But at the very least, they can cater to the persons who actually purchase their music and make an enjoyable experience out of it. There are a few iTunes only tracks which I would like to purchase but have not done so due to the fact that I do not want to be painted into a corner. Sure, there are some software cracks out there that will strip the DRM off of the tune, but that’s not the point. I want to say “Hey, I paid some cash for this, and I want to do what I want with it. That’s how it’s been for all time, let’s keep it that way.”
Bravo to Steve for pointing out the obvious. Music industries take note. You are losing the battle. Hightail it out of here and remove DRM from all music and the world will be a better place.