“Apple’s iTunes service does use DRM technology — for example, users may not e-mail downloaded music files to one another, although they may burn unlimited copies of files to CDs. Still, the company’s approach is far less restrictive than that of its competitors,” writes Alan S. Horowitz for EcommerceTimes.com.
“Last April, an event occurred that may prove seminal in hindsight. ‘If I had to pick a DRM watershed event, it’s the iPod with iTunes,’ VeriSign principal scientist Thomas Hardjono told the E-Commerce Times, referring to Apple’s move to sell songs over the Internet for 99 U.S. cents each, and $9.99 for most albums. ‘It’s a watershed because it has shown the record labels, who are used to making a lot of money out of a CD, there’s an alternative business model,’ Hardjono said. ‘The labels used to accuse the peer-to-peer networks of killing the legitimate music business. Apple has shown there’s a middle way. If you make it easy enough and cheap enough, it will sell,” Horowitz writes.
“Many of [Apple’s iTunes Music Store’s] rivals charge monthly subscription fees, restrict the number of times a downloaded file can be burned to CD, or make downloaded files inaccessible if a user’s subscription expires. Apple does none of those things,” Horowitz reports.
Full article here.