Less than a week since Steve Jobs' announcement that the cd labels should move to eliminate DRM in music for sale by download, Ars Technica reports on a rumor
that EMI is in negotiations with some of the leading music stores to offer a substantial portion of its music catalog without DRM, with an announcement due as early as today.
Ironically, another study has been released which concludes that P2P file sharing has no appreciable impact on music sales. But I'm certain that DRM does. I'm not going to buy music online through iTunes with all of the complications that DRM causes. It's not worth it, and I'm sure other consumers feel the same way. Anyone gotten burned yet by iTunes, where they have lost access to music they have purchased because of a computer glitch, or become frustrated because they can't play it but on devices which support Apple's FairPlay? Thank you, EMI, for listening to the purchasing habits of those that buy music rather than continuing to succumb to the mass hysteria in your industry about P2P.
Now if they'd only get smart and figure out the negative press from the RIAA lawsuits is doing more damage to music sales than P2P.
Movies Should Follow
If the movie industry were smart, it'd follow the trend and go DRM-less before the market slaps their mama. They're sitting pretty now because it still takes so long to download a movie off a torrent or P2P, but I'm sure that will change soon. It won't be long before you'll be able to snatch any film you want off the net in a few minutes, just like your favorite songs. However, you'll notice that Jobs and the rest have been very quiet when it comes to applying these same anti-DRM sentiments to the movie industry.
Meanwhile, if you think it's irritating dealing with DRM on a silly song or album--you ain't seen nothing until you've tried dealing with movies. Windows has a viral "license" type program built-in, that'll pretty much prevent you from watching anything until it gets clearance from a site (which is undoubtedly loaded up with malware for your "convenience" and "security.")
In fact, I'd say it's almost 200% easier just to download a movie via Bittorrent than struggle with the DRM crap, even if you're willing to pay for the privilege. At least with the torrents you only might get malware. If you go the official route, that's guaranteed.
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Check out Barton's gaming blog at Armchair Arcade.