Is DRM Over?
Fri Feb 9, 2007 1:52PM EST
See Comments (32)
Who knew the drop-DRM movement would move so fast. Ever since Steve Jobs's big statement this week on dropping digital rights management from iTunes-purchased songs, music companies and European governments have been reacting in all manner of ways.
Yesterday, most European governments accused Jobs of trying to shift the focus from Apple's DRM conflicts with some continental governments to the record companies. And today, Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman said that the home of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Josh Groban would not drop copy protection.
Despite these protests, DRM's days may still be numbered: EMI, the home of Janet Jackson, the White Stripes, and The Beatles, is seriously considering dropping DRM altogether. Given the recent Beatles hints that Steve Jobs has made of late, could this mean that Apple and iTunes will offer the online debut of the Beatles long-guarded catalog without copyright protection? Seems insane and ironic, but if EMI is up for it....
Okay, so DRM doesn't stop piracy, but I still don't know what completely copy-able MP3s are going to do to stop piracy, either. It's not like I want the record companies to get their way or anything, but don't they help at least some deserving artists get a shot at the big time and maybe even paid? How are artists going to get paid when their MP3s can be copied ad infinitum? What exactly is EMI's financial plan here?
And as I've said before, what's so hard about burning some iTunes-purchased tracks onto a CD, then re-ripping the CD into MP3s that‘ll work on any player, anyway? It still makes a better copy in the end than anything we could have ever put on a cassette tape, for anyone who can remember.
Meanwhile, let's talk about iTunes-purchase video, which you can't even burn to a DVD, much less play on non-iPods.
Here's a quick poll: Would you pay money for non-DRM MP3s from iTunes when you can just copy them from your friend?
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27 Posted by biologicalpurple on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:08PM EDT Report Abuse
When I said that mp3 sound quality ain't that bad, I actually had in mind portable players (iPods) and mini components. I was not talking about playing mp3s on a 4 thousand dollar harman kardon system with a 5 thousand dollar pair of B&W speakers. That's like spending thousand of dollars on an antique dining table and putting subway napkins on top of it. I have huge number of original CDs on my rack and I have made mp3 copies of every single one of them (especially the ones that skip a lot). I encoded them with a bitrate of 192kbps, put the entire collection on a DVD, played it on a quite good Denon hifi system and to to tell you all the truth... it sounds exactly like the CDs. I really don't undrstand you people who say that you can detect sound degradation on mp3 files with your ears. I have Eric Clapton, Santana and Jose Carreras on mp3 and when I play it on my hi-fi, their guitars and voices don't sound "degraded" in any way.
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28 Posted by mpionus on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:27PM EDT Report Abuse
DRM goes beyond just music. It covers software too. I recently purchased a piece of software that simulates a Cisco router for school. I installed it on my desktop, I installed it on my primary laptop...boy was I surprised when I tried to install it on my secondary laptop that I couldn't install it anymore because I had reached my "limit". It's my software, I bought it, I should be able to use it wherever I want. Imagine if my primary laptop blew up....I'd have to go buy the software all over again even though I've already purchased it once. I don't give a darn about piracy. I'm sick of being bled dry by greed corporations who claim to be trying to "stop piracy" while doing nothing but making things difficult for honest users. A pirate will get through any DRM you design.
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29 Posted by jpconard on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:42PM EDT Report Abuse
The only two songs I purchased from Napster I can no longer play thanks to DRM. I don't think DRM video from Wal-Mart will fare much better. Who wants to pay the same for a 640x480 protected WMV as they could for the original DVD, or just go to Redbox rent it for a buck plus tax. I buy CDs and rip them. Finally after the weak 90s we have some good bands - Nickelback, 3 doors down, Hinder, Theory of Deadman, and a few more. I've bought all of them, but probably not many CDs in the 90s. Got to have what people want to purchase before you can sell anything.
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30 Posted by vasili27 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:32PM EDT Report Abuse
The issue here is not that by removing DRM that we will deal with piracy. It is that I can bye a CD with music burn it to my hard drive and load the songs on too my MP3 players as many times as I want so when I replace my devices there is no issue. But if I buy it on iTunes I pay the same but can only load it on a limited number of players due to DRM limitations. So music industry needs to be consistent.
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31 Posted by commorancy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse
Why bother with DRM at all? Go buy the CD and rip it. You`ll have a free and clear MP3s from the CD that you can move to wherever you want them. Plus, you`ll have the original 16 bit fully uncompressed original to boot. When you buy DRM digital tunes from download sites, you`re getting an already compressed lower resolution copy that prevents you from moving it anywhere. Even better, you can go to used CD places and find used CDs for sometimes half the price of new and you'll get even a cheaper deal than digital downloads. Until the digital download sites give more incentives to purchase the DRM protected content (i.e., higher quality than CD), I'll stick with buying used audio CDs and ripping them.
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32 Posted by recehc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:33PM EDT Report Abuse
I was just thinking, in a world where nobody bought cds or drm-free mp3s any more, where would your friends, or anyone for that matter, get their songs from, for everybody else to copy? I don't think that's gonna happen. Rather, I'd bet that the music market will find its own balance, meaning somebody is going to have to actually buy the music, so that the rest of the world can copy it through p2p sites, or any other medium. Some people might have the latest U2 single, whereas others might have the latest Green Day album. Of course, there will always be "freeloaders", but that's the way p2p sites work nowadays, so it wouldn't be that different from the way it is now. I agree with Steve Jobs. DRM isn't working and will never work as intended. The record companies will have to change their business models if they want to survive in the digital age. The music market is not what it was 15 years ago, and never will. No matter how many lawsuits or how many people they take to court...
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26 Posted by ccpickre on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:20PM EDT Report Abuse
I was around when Napster came out (I also am one of the few people who appreciated your CD to cassette analogy, nice touch). I was also one of those people who still bought cds when they were affordable. Once the record labels raised prices to a ridiculous amount, I went rouge. Am I ashamed, no. Did I hope for a better way? Yes. Once Itunes and Rhapsody came otu, I signed up for both (since I hadn't purchased a Mac yet). Now that my mac is my main computer, being a rhapsody user is frustrating, but I do the (Download, burn, re-encode to Itunes) method you mentioned. Could I do that with my friends cd? yes. Would I? Probably not, I'm too lazy, and it would be annoying to have to go to each and every friend looking for that one song I wanted. But downloadig that one track, DRM or not, from Rhapsody or Itunes for 89 cents or a dollar is worth it. Like you said, DRM hasn't curbed Piracy, yet once Itunes and other avenues came out, and I could buy the one track I wanted for a dollar, instead of the album I didn't for 20 bucks, I pretty much stopped downloading altogether.