defectivebydesign.org — "What this really makes clear is that this was never about the record companies withholding DRM-free music from Apple, but rather that Apple was unwilling to concede a tiered pricing structure to the recording companies" -- but there is a bigger message in this for all of us. Put simply, anti-DRM activism is working.
Jan 8, 2009 View in Crawl 4
cmisterJan 8, 2009
I really enjoyed reading all the mainstream news reports about Apple dropping DRM - hopefully this will help accelerate the general publics awareness of the issue.
columbJan 8, 2009
f**k DRM! (had to)
davecachiaJan 8, 2009
I am glad that Apple has dropped DRM. Now I will actually buy music, because it will be MY music unconditionally; no DRM contract.
borbusJan 8, 2009
I love how Apple say that it is "really easy" to upgrade your library to DRM-free. Of course, most people have to work quite hard to get the $0.30 per song that it costs to "upgrade". So how is that "really easy", Apple?
bootupJan 9, 2009
Now if they would only base their music players on the standards (like a USB mass storage device for instance) and not try to restrict where they can use their audio players it I MIGHT consider buying one. Honestly though they are really just overpriced peaces of garbage anyway. Anybody who thinks otherwise just bought into the hype that Apple paid for regarding the 'higher quality' and ease of use. Stuff that isn't standardized isn't easier to use. Sandisk also includes U3 (another program that makes their flash drives harder to use). It is therefore not integrated (it doesn't just pop up when you insert it until required software- if it is even supports the particular system/device) is installed). It isn't integrated and most users just don't know how or aren't good at installing software.
thekitchensinkxJan 9, 2009
That's ridiculous. Unless they're actually pricing the DRM-free songs at $1.30 now, which would also be ridiculous anyway, there's absolutely no reason to make people pay that. I'm glad Apple is DRM-free now, but it seems to me that they're just doing it as a business move; DRM-free advocates will actually buy now and people who have bought in the past have to pay more. If they didn't want to look like jackasses they'd move to DRM-free without a price tag.
sonanJan 9, 2009
A coworker's son had an ipod, with lots of purchased songs from itunes, but it broke and they had no idea why the songs wouldn't play on the mp3 player they bought to replace it. I knew itunes used some proprietary format, so I researched how to convert it only to find that you apparently have to burn all the songs to CDs and then rip them back off! I literally laughed outloud. Anyway, I guess now I can tell them about their other option, of re-buying all of their songs in a standard format. Either way, they're screwed.
webcam2Nov 25, 2009
what is DRM?