Apple’s CEO on DRM, Fool or Visionary
Here is This Week’s “Post From the Paladin” (AKA Knightwise)
Why does Steve want to let go of DRM?
As the resident pessimist of the Global Geek Podcast, I was truly surprised at the announcement of Steve Jobs yesterday, saying that Apple would be more than happy to drop DRM if the music industry would agree. I must admit, I did not see that one coming. Apple has been getting quite a lot grief from some countries in the European Union about the whole iTunes DRM scheme. But some how I don’t think that is the reason for his statement.
Lets step back and look at the Apple DRM and what it does for Apple. The DRM on the iTunes tunes that you buy gives you the option to play it on up to 5 computers, and makes it impossible to play it on any other player then an Apple iPod. The music industry of course benefits through the fact that nobody can copy and freely distribute the songs. So if your friends want it, they just have to buy their own copies.
For apple this means the following: The iTunes music store is their personal “crack dealer”. [Ouch... -Ed]. The more music and movies you buy in the iTunes music store the more you have “invested” in your own personal music collection. How many songs you bought is totally irrelevant because Apple is making peanuts for profits. BUT if you have a 1000 songs that you purchased on iTunes and your iPod breaks (or you are fed up with it) there is no “alternative” than buying another Apple mp3 player because of the DRM. So the iTunes music store is Apples sure fire way that you will buy THEIR portable player next time. Since they OWN the DRM , there is no way that any competitor (lets say Creative) will build an mp3 player that lets you play Apple DRM’ed songs on their player.
Possible theories: According to Steve it was the music industry that asked for DRM. I’m sure that is completely true. There is no way in hell the music industry would let anyone sell digital copies of songs without any protection. Yet the Apple DRM goes one step further. It locks the content to work only on portable players built by Apple. So why would Apple drop this very lucrative DRM scheme?
To beat the competition?
Think about it: If the iTunes music store were to sell music DRM free people would flock over to it. Everybody with a computer and ANY mp3 player would be more then happy to buy songs that where theirs alone to own. But to what avail? Not only would the industry shy away from putting their songs on iTunes (cause they could be freely copyable) Apple would become the one – stop pirates shop for stuffing up on contents and distributing it all over the world. And with no guarantee their iTunes customers would have to buy an iPod… What is there to gain?
To stay legal in Europe?
Okay, Norway and France frowned on the iTunes - iPod DRM lock and have threatened to pursue the matter. But the losses in iPod sales by unlocking the DRM would be much greater than if they would just pull out of these countries altogether.
Because DRM is Flawed by design. Lets face it.
Right now if you pirate music (download it illegally) you are in total control of your content. You can do whatever you want with it, play it on whatever you like. If you go the legal path and purchase it you find yourself restricted in many ways. If you are an iTunes customer you have to have an iPod, only have 5 computers to play it on and what have you. If you are a MSN Music store customer your songs are no longer playable on the Zune, and when the mp3 player industry (Philips, Creative) decides that the plays for sure DRM is dead, your entire (paid for) music collection is worthless. So what do you get for being honest? DRM is locking users in and with time it will chase them away. In addition to that developing DRM protection is a very costly affair. Hours are spent on constructing this protection scheme, only to have it cracked in a few days by techno - enthusiasts like DVD John, so all of that hard work is money down the drain.
Fool or visionary?
I must admit I’m not one of these “Apple Fanboys”, but the truth of the matter is that Steve has made bold statements before. When they dropped the floppy in the iMac everyone said they where insane, while in fact they where just thinking years ahead of their time. So perhaps Steve is seeing the DRM free future (as we all are) as a good solution. The question is; do the old farts of the music and movie industry think the same way? If they pull out of the iTunes music store because they are pissed at Steve’s vision, the iTunes music store will go bust. But the music industry loses its one gateway sale point to millions of iPod users.
So who wins? Who has what to gain?
I think it is us: The consumer. It all boils down to the fact that WE decide. Both the music industry and Apple might cling to their precious DRM and try every possible scheme to keep the flood at bay. But in the end DRM is a dam that holds back the flow of progress. And we all know that water finds its way regardless. So either the water finds its way through or the dam brakes under the pressure. In either case the consumer must prevail.
Graphic Credit: GregoryH
February 9th, 2007 at 4:22 am
There’s plenty to Jobs’s statement that was deliberately opaque and/or just plain wrong, but it’s true that we seem to be headed in a good direction. For example, his little schpiel about 97% of content on iPods being DRM free. A more telling stat would be of people who use the iTunes store (not just the software) how many songs do they have in a DRM protected format. I’d guess a fair share of new users have exclusively DRMed content.
The big cover job is his claim that FairPlay can not be shared. DVD is a shared standard format with DRM and while that DRM has been broken (multiple times), DVDs sell better than ever. A better explanation of this stance is required before we move on to MP3 (of which I’m a fan and the format I use exclusively by ripping CDs).
Anway, I wrote a column about it, which I think you can get to by clicking on my name. Thanks for making people more aware of DRM issues! This is what we need!
February 9th, 2007 at 5:27 am
Hi Dave. Once again a great posting. I took your advice and have neatly arranged my links on my blog page. Luckily I got the day off today because of that white stuff that falls out of our skies occasionally here in the UK… you may have heard of it… “snow”…
Once again thanks for your tip.
30+ degrees…..!
February 9th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Oops…. er… Just noticed the post was by Knightwise… In that case… “great post Knightwise”…
… it’s been a long day….
February 9th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Steve Jobs didn’t want DRM from the outset, but was forced into it in order to make iTunes viable; the music labels refused to supply content to iTunes Music Store (iTMS) without it. SO in order for Jobs to get the whole iTunes+iPod phenomonen off the ground, DRM was a necessary evil.
There are a number of other reasons to own an iPod (beyond iTMS) the case for DRM is weakening. Let’s face it, honest people will continue to buy music regardless of the format/DRM/etc and leechers will continue to use pirated sources.
Yes, I’ve downloaded copyrighted music off torrents etc, but ONLY for the albums (CD’s) I already own. Hell, why bother ripping a CD for my iPod when someone else has already done it, AND included the album art, lyrics and a pulic domain music video too?!?
February 9th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
The one thing I did not point out was the fact that if you buy cd’s they are drm free already, so Steve might just do it to get an edge on the retail cd shops. Offering track by track purchase DRM free. But if you listen to the music industry they think every Ipod is infected with illegal content and everyone with a computer is a pirate. Truth of the matter is : While Microsoft shoves a dollar up the ass of the music industry whenever a zune is sold. Steve is thinking about ditching it all together. A noble cause but when his content providers think otherwise … its pie in the sky. And the rift between consumer and provider widens once more. And were there is a vacuum , piracy floods in.
February 10th, 2007 at 2:35 am
To James :
“Yes, I’ve downloaded copyrighted music off torrents etc, but ONLY for the albums (CD’s)”
That must be the best excuse I ever heard !
I’ll ask Santa and the Easter Bunny to preform on a Rap Album together, next time they are having tea in my living room.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:51 am
The issue is only iTunes and iPod because they dominate the online music business. Say it was Creative or Zune with WMA files that have drm, and my understanding is all content has DRM if it is bought online, not just iTunes.
I don’t understand why countries like Norway, France and other members of the EU target Apple and iTunes specifically when all music sold online is DRM protected. Yes you have to use an iPod if you buy from iTunes but if you buy from somewhere else then you can’t use an iPod and therefore the same rules apply. If the EU are serious they will eradicate DRM from everywhere. If they just target Apple then they are getting dangerously close to enforcing a restriction of trade as Apple are only allowed to sell with copy-protection installed.
Any computer savvy person can get around Fairplay DRM by copying, then ripping the music to .mp3 which strips DRM. I am in the Jobs camp where 99% of my music is from my own CD’s. I have over 5.5k tunes on my ipod and less than 60 would be from the iTunes store I would say as a guess. lets yo play on up to 5 computers and ipods… I mean how many computers do you own that you would need to have the ability to listen to it on more than 5 anyway. Fairplay works for me and for most people and they don’t even notice the DRM. I bet 90% don’t even know their songs are protected from iTunes nd the ones that are concerned strip it out anyway or download illegally.
I will admit to being an Apple fanboy but I still think they are being unfairly targetted. I would be more concerned with the Zune that actually places DRM on non-DRM files when it “squirts” files to others and then that DRM can’t be removed. To me that is a far more serious issue but cause Microsoft are paying Universal $1 per Zune sold (I bet Universal made millions from that deal :P) it’s let go by everyone. At least Apple aren’t putting DRM on your songs you already have, just the ones from the iTunes store. If you don’t like it buy the CD and rip it, or download illegally.
February 14th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Hey Tony ! (thanx for commenting) I agree, the Zune is a infectious fungus-bucket. Microsoft is so far up ars of the entertainment industry their flashlight must shine out through their nosehairs. But the whole thing with the Apple DRM stuff in Norway and France is the fact that iTunes music only plays on iPods. This is a violation of European fair-competition laws ( And we’ve been known to Give MS a hard time on this as well) So the beef is not with DRM on music , but on the fact that the DRM ties iTunes to the iPod. (at least that was the case in France and Norway) I don’t think Europe is picking on Apple, I bet Steve Balmer has had a few restless nights with Nelie Smit Croes walking around in his dreams, nagging about the Windows-IE-Mediaplayer Siameese triplet.