Feb 06, 2007

So, Steve Jobs is on the record as wanting the music industry to do away with DRM.  Link here.

I find this most surprising, considering that one of the biggest complaints about iTunes is the fact that these songs will only play on an iPod.  Jobs says that it was the record companies that forced this on Apple to begin with, and that only 10% of the content is DRM’ed anyway, so why the restriction?

Interesting indeed!

My questions:

1. I don’t know that I believe him – is this a ploy to gain favor from the rank-n-file, knowing full well that the top brass will never go for it?
2. Is it some kind of public slander campaign to ease some sort of negotiations that are going on in parallel
3. Is it just the European legal troubles that have really prompted this stance?
4. Or, is he serious?

My conclusion:

Who cares if he’s serious, as long as someone of his weight is advocating for true “fair use”, I’m thrilled.  Nothing makes me more mad than companies who shackle the paying customer with annoying DRM that can be circumvented by anyone with half a brain.  If people want to steal music, they will.  Personally, I’d rather pay for it knowing that I can play it where and how I want, and that I won’t loose it due to technology issues (like a new PC or new MP3 player, etc.)

That last issue of loosing the music isn’t so front and center now, but it will be as iTunes gets older.  The established four “re-licenses” may seems fine now, but it won’t be in the future.  XP needs a reinstall every year and PC’s change about every 2 to 3 years, etc.  I know, Vista may be better, but I’ll believe it when I see it…

I still have CD’s that I bought 15 years ago.  Will I be able to say that about music that I’ve bought from iTunes?  I don’t know, and that really worries me.