Comments on: Then why not do it?

By: blip

blip — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:16:53 +0000

I actually thought that Cory’s response was kinda friendly – “This is a big day — a huge day.”

Of course he is banging the anti-DRM drum but I find him much less annoying that the 50 per cent of World press who keep saying the the ipod is a locked in device. We need a high-profile big-head railing against DRM as much as we need Steve Jobs secretly plotting the future of Apple (in his underground lair).

By: Splashman

Splashman — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:18:17 +0000

@V-TRAIN: I’m well aware of the DRM the Zune adds for squirting (Gawd, I hate that term). My point is that if the rest of the world moves to non-DRM music, what will MS do about the squirt DRM? There’s no way the labels would allow squirting without DRM.

“Zune: Buy a song from our store, DRM-free! Unless you want to squirt it to someone, of course — then we’ll add DRM! It’s a feature, honest! You’re welcome!”

I suppose, if all 11 people that own Zunes have filled them with mostly non-DRM music (i.e., ripped from CDs), the situation wouldn’t change much. But currently, at least some percentage of the population has gotten used to the notion of DRM, so the notion of dealing with squirt DRM is just an incremental inconvenience. When the labels remove all the DRM, suddenly only Zune squirters will have DRM. “Get it right here, folks — the only MP3 player with DRM! And it’s brown! Get’em while they last!”

Maybe I’m over-thinking it. Y’think?

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:12:17 +0000

I mispelled his name repeatedly. I suck. Oh well.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:10:57 +0000

“But Apple has been saying for years that DRM on iTunes is all or nothing (see the third comment, and a tip o’ the old antlers to Hack the Planet).”

You’re misreading that comment. What Apple has been saying for years is that all indies get the same contract, because Apple doesn’t want to negotiate thousands of different contracts, one for each indie label. They have not been saying that DRM is all or nothing, although it’s had that effect in practice.

Some of your more vehement readers might want to cut Corey some slack. Without him and others like him, it’s unlikely Steve would have felt the need to post his thoughts.Yes, it can be grating, but someone has to be out there on the fringe, making things happen.

I mean, do you guys actually like restrictions on what you can do with the music you own? Corey has done a lot more for the anti-DRM cause than any of you. Are you just alll conservatives or something? Because you sure seem to appreciate a lot of whine with your cheese.

By: Dhrakar

Dhrakar — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 23:54:32 +0000

Here’s another question to wrap your furry little antlers around Mr. ‘lope: If all 4 labels cave and decide to license their music what will Microsoft do? They have invested mightily in DRM throughout Vista and with the Zune… I’m thinking that this is as much a shot across the bow of Microsoft as it is the RIAA.

By: Follower

Follower — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:08:30 +0000

Oh -- and lots of love for Cory Doctorow here.

By: Church of Apple

Church of Apple — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:03:05 +0000

The cracks are forming in the foundation:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/emi-experimenting-open-formats-music/story.aspx?guid=%7B1F2739E3%2DC56A%2D41BF%2D89F9%2D8A4B91148EA8%7D&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo

“…He will smite the giants of hymn for their transgressions. Their towers will buckle and crack and He will wipe the world clean of DRM for ever and ever…”

Jobs 23:46-47

Amen.

By: swissfondue

swissfondue — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:56:27 +0000

” think he would absolutely need all four labels to agree to drop the DRM restrictions for downloaded music. ”
Not really. Apple started the Australian iTunes store without Sony. Same in Japan.

By: macius

macius — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:39:13 +0000

I am heartened by Steve Jobs’ open letter. He proves yet again that he gets it. It’s quite clear that the labels are where we need to focus our attention. The big problem facing us now, as consumers, is how to send the proper market signals to apply pressure to record labels. For example, if we stop buying DRM’d music and only buy CDs… the RIAA would start dancing in the street since they really dont feel comfortable with this whole music downloading thing anyway. If we stop buying CDs and only buy non-DRM’d music… we lose because our music choices would be severely limited. I suppose we could stop buying music all together. But that hardly seems realistic.

So what do you think? What is the proper response?

By: Follower

Follower — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:37:18 +0000

I commented about this all-or-nothing aspect of iTunes’ DRM on the previous post — before you published this one, ‘Lope. Great minds think alike, I guess…