eMusic downloads are DRM free. It's a great place for some types of music too and much cheaper than iTunes.
The 25 free songs deal sounds good, too.
eMusic downloads are DRM free. It's a great place for some types of music too and much cheaper than iTunes.
Sorry, by "buy-once-copy-freely" I thought you meant it was ok to copy for friends after buying it.Well, Steve said it.
The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players.
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thougonmusic/
He does not refer to a modified DRM or a DRM replacement, but of "DRM-free" music which "is playable on all players".
I certainly could be missing a point, but his position seems to be that no DRM does equal "Buy-once-copy-freely".
Seems like I say this every time a DRM story hits: Am I missing something here?
When I bought my first iPod about three years ago, I ripped most of my CDs into iTunes. In the last three years, I have bought very few CDs and quite a few digital tracks from iTunes. I listen to ripped and digital tracks on my PowerBook. I burn album CDs and mix CDs. I play ripped and digital tracks on my two iPods. I'm not planning on getting a non-iPod MP3 player anytime soon.
Given all that, DRM does not adversely affect me one bit.
Why -- specifically, not in theory, not because it's BAD! -- why does DRM bother you?
Of course, this is a very important point. Really, Apple's DRM does not get in the way at all, but only because there is the out of burning the track to CD, which will let you do whatever you want with the track - turn it into a ringtone, use it in iMovie, whatever.
Likewise, the iPhone needs the blessing of the mobile industry to become successful. And in the states, that means being locked to a carrier.
Thanks for the postI think I can speak authoritively on this subject. I do DRM for a living. Infact, right now I'm supposed to be putting the finishing touches on our latest VM, so that all the mean nasty pirates have a harder time cracking our reader software. Meh.
But it seems that allowing music to be sold without DRM will do nothing more than diminish the number of sales.
There is no evidence of that at all.
Let's say there is a song that I want to buy and download to my Creative player. The song is available on iTMS and allofmp3.com. I have three choices:
1. Download from iTMS, go through all of the **** like burning on a CD, reimporting with quality loss. That's the legal way.
2. Download from iTMS, then download another cheap copy from allofmp3.com without DRM. A more expensive, but clearly ethical way.
3. Download a cheap copy from allofmp3.com without DRM. Cheap, no DRM, not ethical.
As you can see, (1) is cumbersome. (2) is cumbersome and more expensive. (3) gives me the best product for the best price and is clearly unethical. Many people will do (3) because they don't want to pay more for being honest _and_ be punished for it by getting a less useful product. Without DRM, many of those _would_ pay the higher price to be honest.
The dishonest people would go the cheap route anyway, with or without DRM. And there will be some people who would stay honest without DRM because they would think it is unfair to take advantage of being trusted and making copies, where the same people wouldn't mind breaking the DRM in some way. Treat someone like an honest person, and they'll act honestly. Treat them as a thief, and they act as a thief.
The 25 free songs deal sounds good, too.
You miss the very important point about the current situation: EVERYTHING that's on iTunes or any legal online store can be obtained illegally. If I buy a song and decide to upload it to the net, then I'm not really making it easier for anyone to pirate that song because it's probably already there.I still maintain that some sort of process needs to be in place to prevent unauthorized duplication and distribution.
Exactly - DRM is essentially useless.You miss the very important point about the current situation: EVERYTHING that's on iTunes or any legal online store can be obtained illegally. If I buy a song and decide to upload it to the net, then I'm not really making it easier for anyone to pirate that song because it's probably already there.
DRM does not stop piracy. Ever. Ever ever ever ever ever. It never has, never will.
For a second there, I thought you meant the Aristocrats. I was very confused.I wanted to get Aristocats for my daughter
All in good time. Right now the music industry NEEDS iTunes. The film industry doesn't, so writing an open letter like he did wouldn't have anywhere near as much impact.I wish he'd address movies as well.
You miss the very important point about the current situation: EVERYTHING that's on iTunes or any legal online store can be obtained illegally. If I buy a song and decide to upload it to the net, then I'm not really making it easier for anyone to pirate that song because it's probably already there.
DRM does not stop piracy. Ever. Ever ever ever ever ever. It never has, never will.
Just make sure you put them in the same cell that's reserved for the CEOs of RIAA, and the major labels.Exactly - DRM is essentially useless.
The only way to stop piracy is to crack down on P2P sites and start persecuting these criminals.
So you think p2p clients are harder to use than iTunes????If the people buying those songs had an easy way to get their music for free, do you really think that they would just stop by the iTunes store because they like Apple?