arstechnica.com — Universal Music Group has announced that the company is going to test selling DRM-free music to consumers in order to assess the market. It's a strange test, however: Apple isn't included. Nevertheless, we think DRM's days are numbered.
Aug 10, 2007 View in Crawl 4
phlebitisAug 10, 2007
The whole concept behind DRM is flawed. It is punishing people for purchasing music that they could easily access for free. The people that actually pay for music online are not the ones who flood the internet with free songs. DRM is misdirected.
macparrotAug 10, 2007
This is nonsense. Of the millions of computers that are bought (pre-made) each year, what percentage of them are EVER opened up to have components changed beyond adding more RAM (a higher percentage than most upgrades) or swapping out a hard drive (lower percentage than RAM would be my guess). There are enough people that do more than that to make it worth the while of the NewEggs or Tiger Directs to sell them, but most computers are bought, connected, and then sit there until a new one is purchased. Apple knows this and also knows that the enthusiest/ hobbiest aren't going to buy a Mac. So they don't make most of their computers for them.And no, no matter how many times you say it, it's not the same thing thing as iTunes.
macparrotAug 10, 2007
Does your Digital Player play AAC files? Many do. If it does, take a DRM-free EMI song purchased through iTunes and drag and drop it (or whatever it takes to get it on your player) and see if it plays. I think you'll find it plays just fine. AAC is an open standard that Apple does not control. The only thing that prevented you from playing it before was the DRM that the copyright holders insisted that Apple and Microsoft and all their Plays4Sure partners put on the content. Put the blame for content DRM where it belongs. Not on Apple or Microsoft, but on the content copyright holders. As far as you being able to put OS X on your PC, try using OSX86 (or whatever they call it). It might work if you're so very desperate to use OS X on something other than a Mac. Just don't cry to Apple if it doesn't work and they won't support you.
omarciddoAug 10, 2007
You know what I'm talking about. This is a TECH story first and foremost. This is not the same politics as Republicans vs. Democrats, Bush, Ron Paul and the like. Keep all that crap in the political section, thank you.
rogerstrongAug 10, 2007
Only the most deluded fanboy thinks that Sandisk, HP, Sony or any other players owe anything to Apple" hardware, programmers, seed money or software". Plenty of other companies built players and wrote the software before Apple. Many ot them have done it *better*.What Apple did differently was to create a service with a wider selection and less odious restrictions than other services at the time. Those of us who use MP3s don't rely on that either. (And btw, iTunes for Windows - that's most machines out there - is garbage compared to many similar that come with other players.)
wyzardAug 10, 2007
Lots of people buy music on iTunes already, (even *with* DRM), so you can't really say that online music sales can't compete with P2P.I do much the same as you, downloading songs from P2P networks and then buying the CD if they're worth keeping. But the reason I stick with physical CDs rather than online purchases is because I want lossless audio, and CDs are generally the only way to get that. If the online stores started selling DRM-free FLAC or Apple Lossless, I'd be happy to buy music online, even if I could get (or have already gotten) the same music from a P2P network.
Closed AccountAug 10, 2007
DRM never took on ANYWAY. Its days are numbered is kinda like saying the war on J walking is losing. When was it ever really enforced ?Even with iTunes and all the other groups combined, P2P programs still outnumbered them in amount of songs shared.It just took awhile for the public to realize there was and always has been an alternative to DRM enforced fascist companies like iTunes.And now that the companies have finally lost their propaganda grip on the public, only now people like Steve Jobs and Universal are saying they want to try selling songs without DRM.Give me a f**king break!!
cadenlankAug 19, 2007
Football is a game of errors. The team that makes the fewest errors in a game usually wins.