Catshanghai

I just read this breaking news on Tech Crunch. It has also been reported on the BBC and New York Times. Steve Jobs has just published an open letter to the music industry asking it to abandon DRM on music that is purchased as downloads. This is extraordinary considering that all music bought on the Apples Itunes Music store is crippled with digital rights management (DRM). This means music I have legally purchased can not be played on my computer that runs Linux, because Itunes only runs on Windows and Mac OS.

The letter explains why Apple has to add proprietary DRM to the music it sells. Otherwise, the major four music distributors (Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal) will refuse to license the music Apple sells on its music store. The agreement with the music industry requires Apple to keep its DRM secure. Jobs discusses the three major DRM models.

Model 1: Top to Bottom Proprietary DRM
Apple operates a closed vertical DRM model where purchased music and videos will only run on a combination of hardware and software to the exclusion of all others. Apple’s music downloads will play on Ipods and Itunes software. Microsoft and Sony have the same closed models for their music download services.

Model 2: Interoperable DRM
This model would allow content purchased through one DRM system to be played in another. For example, the DRM would enable music purchased through Microsoft’s Zune store to be played on a Creative device. Jobs recognises the appeal of this alternative to proprietary DRM, but he argues that copy protection is built on ’s ecrets’. A consortium of partners licensing an interoperable copy protection standard will cause the inevitable leak and subsequent breaking of such DRM. He does not meention the fact that Apple makes profits selling hardware rather than media content so proprietary systems seem to suit Steve Jobs for the time being.

Model 3: DRM Free Content
To be fair to Steve Jobs, the nub of the letter admonishes the music industry to abandon DRM given that 97 percent of music sales are still from CDs, which means they have no copy protection anyway. Ipods are full of music that is ripped from CDs or pirated from the Internet using peer to peer download services like bittorrents. Jobs argues that DRM is not working so it should be scrapped.

It is refreshing to see another computer mogul publicly criticise DRM. Bill Gates spoke out against music copy protection in December. Everyone hates DRM except the big players in the movie and music business. I would like to see Apple and Windows take a stand by removing support for DRM in their hardware, software and music stores. In the short term, the content producers will boycott them until they realise they have nowhere else to go. Studios and recording companies already rely on the tools and service that Microsoft and Apple provide. If Sony and Warner looked at the E-Music model they will realise that consumers will be happy to purchase downloadable music and movies providing the experience is convenient, high quality and reasonably priced. Making people pay $10 for a 192 kbps AAC download that does not work on all your devices is none of these.