DRM
Steve Job passes the buck on DRM
Steve Jobs blogged about DRM at Apple, how they arrived at it, what he thinks about it and what could be done in the future. Recently Apple has been catching quite a bit of heat about iTunes DRM, most notably in Norway, where iTunes was ruled illegal. Jobs passes the buck by saying the record companies wouldn't allow him to build iTunes without DRM and then asks iTunes critics to focus their attention on the record companies who demand DRM:
Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.
While I appreciate Jobs speaking up on DRM and shedding some light on how Apple arrived here, I think his post is a cheap cop-out that points fingers elsewhere. Senior advisor Torgeir Waterhouse of the Norwegian Consumer Council agrees:
Our concern is of course that it's Apple and [the] iTunes Music Store [that] should be addressing the issue of record companies and DRM themselves if it needs to be addressed - and as we've stated earlier it's iTunes Music Store that's providing a service to the consumers and therefore has the responsibility to offer up a consumer friendly product.
I would be happier if Jobs himself initiated a move that would put more pressure on the recording companies, but I suspect that Apple stands to lose quite a bit if he rocks the boat too much. So, in that case its clever to have everyone else rail against the record companies.
Regardless of this approach, this is exciting -- Jobs hasn't spoken up about DRM like this before and with all the current negative press on DRM, I am very interested to see how the record companies are going to respond. If one company gives in, can the others afford no to?
Posted by Mayhem at February 6, 2007 03:48 PM
"We have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music" - this is, of course, complete crap. Plenty of stores sell DRM-free music, which by any definition has more liberal usage rights than iTunes (I'm talking about stores like eMusic, or many artist direct sites). Corporate double-speak is just plain annoying. Microsoft has managed to license their DRM to tons of developers without damaging their "secrets", but part of me is glad Apple doesn't license FairPlay, because that would just encourage the spread of DRM.
Hey - here's an idea. Maybe Steve can open up the iPod database format instead of requiring people to reverse engineer it. Or is that another one of Apple's "secrets"?
