Really interesting. And not just related to music. Online video content is getting seriously locked up with DRM, and exactly the same argument applies:
Steve Jobs: "The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely... 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 havent worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy... these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music." I have ripped many of my DVDs to my Mac and iPod, and TV is taped and digitised and YouTubed. Trying to DRM content sold legally on online stores is pointless, expensive and even counterproductive. As I banged on about a couple of weeks ago, the BBC is obsessed with DRM, as so many broadcasters are - they just don't Get It, and yet they could be leading the way since they're uncommercial. They're limiting the growth of the technology and marketplace in pursuit of an expensive lost cause. The assumption is No DRM = Unlimited Piracy = No Revenues & Problems with the Regulator. There's a whole lot of politics here, but what annoys me most is that DRM limits the choices of companies like Apple and the BBC in developing their technologies and content, when could really take things forward in a progressive way. We need to put pressure on the advocates of DRM to educate them - they have 20th century mindsets and are afraid of the internet. But who do we persuade and how do we do it? Jobs must have tried to persuade the music companies' managements personally, and I would guess he's done it energetically and articulately for years. And yet it still hasn't worked. No wonder he's pissed off - it's Apple who are getting sued, not the Big 4. (that's only part of the Story, though, isn't it? iTunes aside, Apple have been getting more and more insular and walled recently, it feels, so perhaps they been infected with the DRM bug by their music biz partners and need to take their own advice) On 7 Feb 2007, at 01:03, Joshua Kinberg wrote: This is more related to the digital music industry, but I think its important nonetheless: <http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/> Very interesting that Steve Jobs, whose company has probably benefited most from DRM, is now taking an anti-DRM stance. -Josh [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
