Jobs thinks DRM is bad, RIAA completely misses it
Posted by Ray @ 2:09 pmPossibly in response to pressure from the EU, Apple boss Steve Jobs recently wrote an entry saying he thought DRM was bad. He thinks there’re no real benefits from DRM:
So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free [ed: Jobs means CD sales], what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none.
No shit. The problem is, studios wouldn’t even let Apple sell music without DRM in place. In fact, the contract requires Apple to fix their Fairplay DRM every time Apple’s DRM is cracked, and within a few weeks at that. If Apple fails, the studios can withdraw their entire line from the iTunes store.
But there’s a funny side: the RIAA has completely misread the letter, thinking this meant that Jobs wanted to license Apple’s Fairplay DRM to other people. Bit Player is reporting that the RIAA says:
Apple’s offer to license Fairplay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels. There have been many services seeking a license to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time.
Funny, ‘cos Jobs actually said “Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies.”
Deluded, or incompetent?
(Remember Hanlon’s razor!)
(See also /., with views by DVD Jon & the Economist)