p2pnet - rss feed: Steve Jobs versus the Big 4
p2pnet.net news:- It’s absolutely brilliant! Steve Jobs, undisputed King of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control, is slowly but surely turning it around, painting himself as the King of anti-DRM with Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG as the bad guys.
Ah! The Power of the expertly wielded PR Spin ;P
“When Apple Inc. sits for contract negotiations with the major record companies over the next month, it will probably seek further concessions from them on selling music without copy-protection software,” says Reuters, continuing:
The owner of the market-leading iPod digital media player and iTunes online music store has already cut an early deal with EMI Group, the third-largest record company, and enters talks with the other labels from a position of strength, according to music industry executives.
That leaves Vivendi’s Universal Music Group; Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which is a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann; and Warner Music Group in a tough spot.
“EMI struck a deal that puts all of us at a disadvantage,” said a music executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said EMI had agreed to let Apple sell its music without anti-piracy protection to please shareholders concerned that the record company was behind in the digital music race.
For its part, EMI argues that the anti-copying software, known as digital rights management, has been frustrating for consumers. “We believe removing it will boost digital music overall,” said an EMI spokeswoman.
Universal, Sony BMG and Warner will aim to steer contract renewal negotiations with Apple to discussions on variable pricing for songs, a subscription service for iTunes, and more bundling of tracks and other features into digital packages, music executives and analysts say.
Apple’s iPod DRM named, ironically, FairPlay (from Veridisc), means theoretically, Apple’s proprietary FairPlay protection technology stops owners from playing downloaded from iTunes on anything other than Apple’s iPod.
We say ‘theoretically’ because in practise, as with all other forms of DRM, innovators quickly cracked it.
Enter PlayFair, able to remove encryption from files using Apple’s FairPlay DRM.
“The author of Playfair used the source code written by Jon Johansen for VLC,” says the Wikipedia. “Apple’s legal department forced PlayFair to be first removed from SourceForge.net, and then when the Indian open source web site Sarovar.org hosted the project they too were sent a cease and desist by Apple’s lawyers.”
But, Jobs’ efforts notwithstanding, Playfair successor Hymn (”Hear Your Music aNywhere”), is till out there as JHymn.
Meanwhile, the Big 4 are “already beholden to Apple, which has more than 80 percent of all digital music download sales in the United States,” says Reuters.
True. But in the larger world of online music, sales on Apple’s iTunes, which is more a user-funded online iPod load application than a genuine music service, don’t amount to a hill of beans.
Not only but also, “EMI rushed into that deal,” Reuters has Ted Cohen, who left a senior position at EMI last year to set up consulting firm TAG Strategic, saying.
“It would have been better to put pressure on Apple to open up FairPlay to make it interoperable across multiple platforms.”
Adds the story, “The other three music companies say publicly that they are only experimenting with dropping DRM, but privately, executives accept that following EMI’s move it is only a matter of time.”
Reuters - Apple seen having upper hand in music negotiations, April 20, 2007
hill of beans - 1 billion songs a DAY shared online’, March 8, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Hey, Apple was required by The Labels to keep repairing Fairplay if broken. Their contract forced them to go after Playfair.
Apple also made it possible, right from the start, to burn every DRM’d file to CD and rip it back in iTunes to DRM free MP3’s. Jobs also tried to get The Labels to agree to DRM free files just like CD’s right from the start. Doesn’t sound like planned lock-in to me.
Exactly who is outselling iTS? allofmp3? Don’t make me laugh. That’s not sales, that’s piracy. You want legal, free music in the genre of your choice? Buy an FM radio and bask in the 64 kbps magic. You wand to buy legal, DRM free files? This time next year they will be available everywhere. EMI has opened Pandora’s Box.
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
you fanboyz =)
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:48 pm
The article says, “Apple’s iPod DRM named, ironically, FairPlay (from Veridisc), means theoretically, Apple’s proprietary FairPlay protection technology stops owners from playing downloaded from iTunes on anything other than Apple’s iPod.”
It left out “… and any computer running the last few versions of Winodws or Mac OS X, or capable of playing an audio CD.” Remember that iTunes itself will strip FairPlay when burning songs to audio CD, which can be done an infinite number of times per song (albeit the exact same playlist can only be burned a limited number of times).
While no DRM is certainly better than any DRM, it would be inaccurate to say that songs purchased from iTunes can “only” be played on an iPod, or that it requires third-party software to “free” the tune from DRM. The number of non-iPod devices in the world that can play songs purchased from iTunes vastly outnumbers the puny 100 million iPods sold. ;o)
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 pm
I can’t understand why you call Steve Jobs the “undisputed King of DRM” or say Apple’s DRM is “ironically” named FairPlay? Don’t you realise that when Apple released Fairplay, it was far less draconian than the competing (mostly Microsoft-based) DRM options out there. The ability to play purchased music on up to 5 computers, the ability to burn unlimited audio CD copies and the ability to transfer purchased music to an unlimited number of iPods were all landmark events in a market up till then sewn up with incredibly consumer-hostile DRM products.
Your statement that Apple’s Fairplay “stops owners from playing (music) downloaded from iTunes on anything other than Apple’s iPod†conveniently neglects to mention the 5 PCs or Macs that can also play that music or the fact that any audio CD player in the world can also do so.
In the end though, I don’t know why you are complaining anyway? Steve has always been anti-DRM (witness his Rolling Stones interview just before the iTunes Music store opened) and his “Thoughts on Music†stand and subsequent EMI DRM-free deal reinforce this. Apple is driving the Music industry to a DRM-free future where Hymn and PlayFair will be a distant memory.
-Mart