DRM

Apple Launches iTunes Plus: Downloads Without DRM

May 30, 2007 by Jim Connelly

Several reports today that Apple has started its experiment with offering music that isn’t restricted by any Digital Rights Management. They are calling it iTunes Plus — I guess that the “Plus” is the freedom to do whatever you want with the songs you download.

Which, of course, shouldn’t really be a plus, but rather a default. But “iTunes Default” or “iTunes As It Shoulda Been In The First Place” probably wouldn’t have gone over too well with the marketing folks, so “iTunes Plus” it is.

Hell Feezes Over: A Major Record Label Does The Right Thing

April 4, 2007 by Kirk Biglione

By now you’ve all heard that EMI has finally agreed to allow Apple to sell DRM-free downloads through the iTunes service. While the agreement has been widely publicized, the details of the negotiations behind the scenes are generally not known. To hear EMI CEO Eric Nicoli tell it, you would almost think that Apple has been preventing EMI from selling DRM-free music.

As Nicoli told the LA Times yesterday:

We’ve always argued that the best way to combat illegal traffic is to make legal content available at decent value and conveniently. And we take the views that we have to trust the consumer.

Life After DRM: A Scrap Heap Of Dead Music

February 8, 2007 by Kirk Biglione

You’ve probably heard the news that DRM is doomed. If Steve Jobs says it, it must be true. It’s hard not to say “I told you so” when, well, I told you so.

Jobs’ proclamation raises an interesting question. Once DRM is dead and buried what happens to all of the music that’s been sold in DRM protected formats?

What is Piracy? Part Two

December 4, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Last week, we posted an item about the acetate of the first version of The Velvet Underground & Nico going on auction on eBay. (As I write this, the bidding is up to US $107,000.) This weekend, I got an email from a friend who said that he was downloading a digital copy of this album.

So here is my question: are either of these piracy? The auction of the physical artifact and the digital download of the music purportedly ripped from that physical artifact. Is the auction somehow not piracy, but the download piracy?

Five Lessons The Music Industry Can Learn From AllofMP3

October 23, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

The recording industry has been waging war against Russian-based music websites for years. While the industry has successfully litigated most file sharing networks out of existence, they haven’t had much luck stopping sites like MediaService’s AllofMP3. Despite the RIAA’s best efforts AllofMP3 continues to sell digital downloads to music lovers around the world, while technically complying with Russian copyright laws and licensing agreements.

While complying with the laws of your country may seem like a loophole here in the United States, it makes perfect sense to a company that’s based in Russia. Unfortunately for MediaServices that the loophole is about to be closed. There are signs the Russian government is planning to crack down on grey market download sites like AllofMP3 in an effort to gain admission into the World Trade Organization.

Regardless of what you think about the legality of AllofMP3, there’s no denying that MediaServices has created one of the most innovative and consumer friendly digital music services around. AllofMP3 is so well done that the “legitimate” recording industry could learn quite a bit by studying it. Hopefully the major labels will take a long look at AllofMP3 before it gets shut down.

Here are a few lessons the music industry could learn from AllofMP3:

9 Reasons Digital Media Products Are A Bad Deal For Consumers

October 18, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

The utopian dream of ubiquitous media access is on the verge of becoming a reality. Consumers can watch TV on their iPods, download sports highlights to their cell phones, and take vast libraries of music with them wherever they go. You would think that all of these new digital distribution systems would be a boon for consumers, but that isn’t necessarily the case.

There are signs that media companies are using the transition to digital distribution as an opportunity to redefine consumer expectations about the value of media products, while at the same time eliminating much of what is currently considered to be fair use.

When consumers buy digital music, movies, or television programs from iTunes, Amazon, and most other digital content sources, they are ultimately paying more, getting less, and being forced to make platform decisions with long term implications.

Here are nine reasons why most digital media products are a bad deal for consumers:

Turning DRM into a Dirty Word

October 10, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Last week, Kirk discussed why some companies don’t want consumers to be educated on DRM; why that’s a bad stance, and how you can get educated your own self. His article reminded me of a comment that was made during the whole controversy over whether or not Zune imposed its DRM on works that had no DRM. Someone from the site Zunemax made the following comment:

but there are at least a billion people out there that don’t give a damn for any of this DRM stuff.

Which on the surface of it, is true. Most people — not the people that you hang out with, of course, but most people — don’t know what DRM is. It’s just one more acronym in an alphabet soup of brand-new concepts that are being thrown at people as the entertainment world lurches towards a full-on digital age.

But that may change. For a couple of reasons.

Teaching Consumers About DRM

October 5, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Some day in the near future you will purchase a digital audio or video recording and find that it doesn’t work exactly as you expect it to. Maybe it will simply stop playing after a few days, or perhaps you won’t be able to convert it for use on your portable media player, or maybe you won’t be able to skip past the annoying promos at the start of the program. When this happens you can blame Digital Rights Management (DRM) for your dissatisfaction.

While we talk a lot about DRM here on Medialoper, it’s not at all clear that everyone understands what we’re talking about. In fact, a 2005 survey of European digital music consumers (PDF file) revealed that 63% had never even heard of DRM, while 23% had heard of DRM but weren’t sure what it was. There’s no reason to believe that American consumers are any more well informed on the issue.

The DRM Virus Is Spreading – A Pandemic May Be Near

September 20, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Last week we were startled to learn about Zune’s viral DRM system. As it turns out, the whole thing may have been a miscommunication on the part of Microsoft’s Zune Insider. But that doesn’t mean that Zune isn’t responsible for spreading the DRM virus. On the contrary, there’s mounting evidence that Zune is directly responsible for a mutation of the virus.

With the release of Zune, Microsoft has intentionally turned its back on its previous DRM standard – the PlaysForSure system. As a result, PlaysForSure partners are starting to drop support for Microsoft’s old DRM system in favor of their own proprietary DRM systems.

On Monday Real Networks and SanDisk announced that the Rhapsody music service will be switching from PlaysForSure to Real’s own Rhapsody DNA system. In an attempt to emulate Apple’s iTunes/iPod experience, SanDisk will release a new player that will be tightly integrated with the Rhapsody music service. The move is designed to position both companies against the upcoming Zune Marketplace as well as iTunes.

Microsoft Insider Clarifies Zune’s Sharing Limitations

September 19, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

It’s been four days since we noted that Zune’s wireless file sharing sounds an awful lot like a form of viral DRM that may be in violation of the Creative Commons licenses. This afternoon Cesar, the Zune Insider, has stepped up to clarify his original comments:

I misspoke (mis-blogged) on last week’s post. We don’t actually wrap all songs up in DRM. Zune to Zune Sharing doesn’t change the DRM on a song, and it doesn’t impose DRM restrictions on any files that are unprotected. If you have a song – say that you got ‘free and clear’ – Zune to Zune Sharing won’t apply any DRM to that song. The 3-day/3-play limitation is built into the device, and it only applies on the Zune device: when you receive a song in your Inbox, the file remains unchanged. After 3 plays or 3 days, you can no longer play the song; however, you can still see a listing of the songs with the associated metadata.