All Posts Tagged With: "DRM"
Wal-Mart DRM Music Will Cease to Play on October 9
Walmart began selling DRM-free tracks in its music store in August of last year. 13 months later, the mega-corp has decided to follow the footsteps of so many others and hit the kill switch on its DRM management servers.
As noted in an e-mail to customers, Wally World will be making the final transition into a fully DRM-free MP3 store on October 9th, and in order to keep those DRM-laden files playable on anything, it’s recommended that you burn protected files on a CD on the double.
EMI Launches New Era Of DRM Free Music Downloads
In a move that’s sure to have both positive and negative ramifications EMI Group announced they would be offering their digital catalog for sale over the internet via Apple’s iTunes and other online retailers DRM Free. Music would be offered at a higher fidelity without the digital rights management software for a premium price of $1.29 instead of the typical .99 cents. You’ll also be able to get a full album for the same prices as a lower fidelity copy-protected album.
It’s a bold move and one that’s long time coming. The consumer market spoke long ago and it look slike EMI at least is starting to listen. Where this goes will be interesting to watch but Eric Nicoli, CEO EMI, said that consumers would pay a higher cost for DRM Free music and that unrestricted tracks outsold their restricted counterparts 10 to 1. That’s no real surprise, I for one would pay a bit more per track to get an unrestricted copy. I think the offering is even more attractive if I can purchase the full high fidelity album for the same cost.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs who was present for the announcement made the lofty prediction that by the end of the year, half the songs on iTunes would be offered DRM Free.
All I can say is, it’s about time.
RIAA Wants To Teach Your Children “Ethical Behavior”
Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman, both of the Recording Industry Association of America explain why they feel it necessary to sue children for illegal downloading of music. Approximately 400 legal actions are aimed at college and university students.
Yet this is about far more than the size of a particular slice of the pie. This is about a generation of music fans. College students used to be the music industry’s best customers. Now, finding a record store still in business anywhere near a campus is a difficult assignment at best. It’s not just the loss of current sales that concerns us, but the habits formed in college that will stay with these students for a lifetime. This is a teachable moment — an opportunity to educate these particular students about the importance of music in their lives and the importance of respecting and valuing music as intellectual property.
Unfortunately I fail to see the lesson here. What I see is the latest attempt by an organization who’s so out of touch with it’s consumers that it can’t see the forest for the trees. The reason this is an issue is because RIAA refuses to acknowledge the consumer has spoken, loudly about what it wants & expects. Instead of embracing new technology to the benefit of both the industry, the artists and the consumer they ignore it and pretend nothing about the industry or the market has changed from twenty years ago, intent on protecting that piece of the pie they’ve held for many years now.
March Declared As Boycott The RIAA Month
Ok, so maybe it’s a bit over dramatic but so are the antics the RIAA continuously comes up with. The strong armed tactics levied against virtually anyone are nothing more than a vain attempt to maintain control of a market they long since lost. Eventually they will come to figure out that the stronger the hold the more people will fight against it and in turn the more money the RIAA will continue to lose until they eventually collapse. In an effort to hasten their demise, Gizmodo has declared March as “Boycott the RIAA” month.
Should Apple and Microsoft be responsible for enforcing DRM in their products?
There’s a couple of stories that Cory over at BoingBoing posted recently (1 | 2) that raise interesting questions about how Microsoft’s Windows Vista is rumored to enforce DRM and how the new Apple iPhone will do the same thing. Without a doubt, the biggest mistake Apple made this week was not having tractor trailers filled to the brim with the sleek new phone for sale. It’s definitely a jewel and has had the technology world buzzing all week. But now the euphoria is wearing off and people are starting to take a closer look at what the pricey iPhone really does and the biggest of these is also a large part of the discussion surrounding bitter rival Microsoft’s upcoming operating system. I’m not debating the finer points of whether the respective industries should protect their material, by all means, they should. Right or wrong the music and video related industries that foot the bills for creation should be able to protect their investments. I’m curious though, if by extension of trying to enforce that protection they’ve not created an umbrella which hardware and software manufacturers can hide behind to now monopolize their own respective markets.
Bill Gates. DRM isn’t workable.
At a recent meeting in Redmond, some of the top tech bloggers were invited to take part in a discussion on the upcoming Mix Conference in Las Vegas. During and hour-long anything goes Q&A session with Bill Gates, Tech Crunch’s Michael Arrington asked Bill Gates his opinion of DRM and it’s long-term viability. Gates had some interesting viewpoints on the subject saying he felt DRM wasn’t workable and actively supported DRM-free music alternatives like eMusic and Amie Street.
Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which “causes too much pain for legitimate buyers” while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are “huge problems” with DRM, he says, and “we need more flexible models, such as the ability to “buy an artist out for life” (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.
His short term advice: “People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then.”
That’s great advice coming from someone that’s actively crippling their newest operating system for what amounts to the same reasons as the existence of DRM. If he feels DRM isn’t where it should be then maybe he should use some of that Microsoft power and influence to effect a change on the industry.
