“Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, jolted the record industry on Tuesday by calling on its largest companies to allow online music sales unfettered by antipiracy software,” John Markoff reports for The New York Times.
Markoff reports, “The Universal Music Group, the Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment declined to comment. But several industry executives said they viewed Mr. Jobs’s comments as an effort to deflect blame from Apple and onto the record companies for the incompatibility of various digital music devices and services.”
MacDailyNews Take: An effort to deflect blame? The blame obviously rests squarely on the shoulders of the major music labels.
Markoff continues, “A senior executive at one company, who requested anonymity to avoid straining relations with Apple, said that while labels might experiment with other forms of copy-protection software, ‘we’re not going to broadly license our content for unprotected digital distribution.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Moron, what about the unprotected digital CDs you sell? Stupidity knows no bounds at the music cartels.
Markoff continues, “Jason Reindorp, marketing director for Zune at Microsoft, said Mr. Jobs’s call for unrestricted music sales was ‘irresponsible, or at the very least naïve,’ adding, ‘It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen. He’s certainly a master of the obvious,’ Mr. Reindorp said, adding that ‘the stars were already aligning’ to loosen the restrictions.”
MacDailyNews Take: Jobs is “irresponsible or at the very least naïve” for making mountaintop pronouncements, but his call for unrestricted music sales is “obvious” as “the stars were already aligning” to loosen the restrictions?” It’s no surprise that this idiot works for Microsoft on the Zune fiasco. And what is Microsoft working with the industry to make happen besides illogical royalty payments to the music cartels from a non-selling device?
Full article here.
Related articles:
Dvorak: Apple CEO Steve Jobs is dead right about DRM – February 07, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ posts rare open letter: ‘Thoughts on Music’ – calls for DRM-free music – February 06, 2007
The first songs they should release DRM-free are the Beatles songs, of course.
Zune makes enough money to support an Exec?
Ok, stupid music industry. Let people keep buying CD’s and then ripping them for the rest of the world to download free of charge. The world has changed. Evolve or disappear.
D’oh: those were exactly my thoughts as I read Steve’s letter yesterday. I have a strong feeling that when the Beatles music comes out on iTunes it’ll be DRM-free.
Talk about a way to poke a stick in the RIAA’s eye
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This is even more proof that Microsoft just doesn’t get it. Microsoft is in this game so that it can be the sole beneficiary – it cares nothing about the customer.
In Jobs’ letter, he mentions consumers once, but customers three times. In Microsoft’s statements, consumers and customers are notably absent; its words focused only on competition and the industry.
Sometimes I just wanna slap peoples faces, what are these Lunes on
To the guys at Zune…Just how much more do you want to motivate Steve Jobs by calling him “naive”??? Companies dream that he would be less motivated or get bored.
Anyone remember the bullseye picture of Michael Dell at the keynote after his statement that Apple should return its money to the shareholders? Folks, we can thank alot to Michael Dell, as since then, Apple has done nothing but kick major butt in every category they have gotten into. DRM-free benefits everyone!
We have a couple of thousand CDs from the major labels at our house. Paid full retail for all of them too, by the way. Anyways … not a one of them has DRM.
There is no one so blind as the deliberately self-deluding.
I think you guys are on to something with the Beatle’s thing.
One thing about what record company and M$ executives say is that they know better, but believe the average person will believe anything. I hope they’re not right, although the M$’ers over at Digg make you think so.
Who the hell was “making in hapen 5 years ago”? APPLE!! Zune is a baby rookie that’s barely been around 6 months….and failing at that. I think someone who has been working on delivery of music for over 5 years, has the advantage and experience to make claims, especially while giving examples and options for all to see. The only option baby Zune has given, is the right to the music companies to grab from their bank account. What they hell does Jason Reindorp A MARKETING DIRECTOR, know about legal/illegal distribution of a billion dollar industry. The fact tha he works for Microsoft says it all.
He should put his money where his mouth is and remove the DRM from the indi labels that did not request it – Purely a marketing plan, Brilliant yes but marketing all the same
“MacDailyNews Take: Moron, what about the unprotected digital CDs you sell? “
The only real answer to this is that over time the music labels will try and put that genie back in the bottle and have DRM protected CDs. They dont want to go the other direction. If they get their way, you’ll pay to listen to a song every time you want to hear it.
Jobs should come out and proclaim the Zune a good first effort just so Microsoft can make a statement declaring that it’s a pile of shit.
Umm, is it going to start raining frogs from the sky? Dvorak agrees with something that Jobs says. Now, MS is saying Jobs is nuts but their biggest fanboi is supporting Apple. THE END IS NEAR!! THE END IS NEAR!!
This response from Zune exec is actually a response from the music companies. Microsoft didn’t come up with the idea for Zune, the music companies did and got Bill and Microsoft to ship it, so as to change their negotiating position with Apple. Steve has trumped them publicly and changed the negotiation to a whole new level!!
We won’t see the Beatles DRM free out of Apple for the same reason all music out of apple is encrypted… player control,
“…we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen.” Riiiiight. And how’s that job coming? Let’s see, where’s the Zune on Amazon’s top 100 electronics products at the moment? Hmm. Nowhere.
Maybe if you were working more on behalf of consumers and less at the behest of the money-grubbing content licensers (i.e. Universal and Sony), Zune would make the list, and your drivel would carry more clout. Right now, it’s not worth the weight of the spit flying from your pie-hole.
(Sorry, must be the coffee. But I’m glad I got that off my chest.)
I think it would be in everyone’s interest, that when Apple does release its first and first few nonDRM tracks, everyone should buy them.
Buying is power, and the industry will see that people will buy nonDRM songs moreso than the restricted ones.
They want DRM everything, with RFID chips at a few cents apiece the technology is now available. How about newspapers with RFID chips in them (how about variable pricing on newspapers depending on how popular the stories are – that’s a dig at RIAA/iTunes). How about cash with RFID chips that determine where it’s been, how YOU can spend it – only with a ‘trusted source’. The phrase ‘trusted source’ is truly Orwellian and promoted primarily by Microsoft who is one of the least trusted sources of all time.
Steve went with DRM to show them a viable business model because the record industry was totally clueless about the concept/technology – remember Eisner’s misunderstanding of ‘rip’. Steve has allowed them plenty of time to see that the business model works and has called them out on it. The problem is their business model is different. Rather than ask people to pay for stuff they want Microsoft’s business model is to extort money for things people (think that they) must have.
Never forget that Microsoft has never even been a software company, it’s always been about lawyering and marketing, usually with some theft/double-dealing involved to get the software products to start with. Check out “Preston Gates Ellis”.
Oh those loony zunies! Don’t they just make you laugh?
Loony Zunes — They’re crackalackin’!!
Steve got the response from Microsoft he hoped for. The more he can get Microsoft to defend DRM in public, the more Microsoft gets the blame. Steve has these bozos trapped now that Vista has shipped. The DRM driven failures of multimedia to work will enrage Vista users and damage Vista migration.
I love it!
“antipiracy software”
Right, “antipiracy”. DRM is about controlling and restricting the use of the average consumer so the major labels can sell you multiple copies of the same thing. If it were up to them, you would not be able to rip CDs.
Reindorp is obviously just trying to roll over and show his belly to the majors – “hey, majors! We will do whatever you want!! We will say whatever you want!! We are your corporate buddies!! Apple is bad!” Douchebaggery.
Interoperability? The majors want us to think they give a single fuck about the consumer? What they care about is the opportunity to charge the consumer more and have more restrictive DRM, neither of which they are going to get with iTS. Thus, they want to be able to get out from under Apple’s thumb. “Oh my god! Apple is DESTROYING the music industry and HURTING the consumer! We want to give you CHOICE!” Please. They want to find an online distributor that is willing to help them bend over the consumer. Great. A choice in 20 crappy players. Oh, wait. $2.99 for “hot” tracks. $1.99 everyday convenient price. Obscure, rarely purchased tracks are $0.79! See! That’s lower than the price on iTS!!!!!!
Get rid of DRM. Sell uncompressed versions. Unless that happens, online distribution will not reach its potential. Thankfully, there are download stores that are already doing this. And guess what? The world has not imploded. Artists are not starving. Consumers are happy. Too bad none of those things mean anything to the major labels.
1. I think it’s hypocritical for a comapny (in this case Apple) and a CEO (in this case Jobs) that rely on predictable enforcement of intellectual property rights (in this case commercial software copyrights) to provide profitability and benefit for shareholders, to ask ANYONE else (in this case musicians and their representatives – the much-maligned record labels) to forego their rights to benefit from their own creativity, work and financial investment. I’ll take Jobs seriously when Aperture or Final Cut Pro is treated the same way that he’s advocating for music.
2. I think that the apparently clueless, naive and intellectually constipated Norwegians et al have no idea what’s involved in bringing a differentiated product to market and earning a living from it. If they don’t like iTunes/iPod, they should invent their own.
just wait…this is just the first salvo from Apple.
Pretty soon, Apple Inc., now that they are free from the Appple Corps lawsuit, will become a label in and of themselves. Artists will be able to negotiate directly with Apple Inc. and have their songs distributed on iTunes DRM free.
Zune……Zucks!
I think that says it all.
Didn’t Gates recently state (at some recent forum) that DRM was bad and should be removed?
Essentially this Zune Exec is saying his boss is naive as well.
Digital watermarking is a potential compromise. While the MP3 format doesn’t provide for robust watermarks MPEG-4 does. M4A is alredy the default format for iPods.
Oh good, let’s all take advice from the guy in charge of marketing the Zune. Also, the captain of the Exxon Valdez while we’re at it.
“while we’re here on the ground”
You wish you were that high up. Or was that an explanation for the Zune’s brown color?
M$ is trying to kiss up to the music industry not because they agree with them but because they precieve a common enemy–Apple.
MDN magic word: “bill” as in you-know-who Gates.
Excerpt from Gates on the Future of DRM (December 14th, 2006)
“Gates didn’t get into what could replace DRM, but he did give some reasonably candid insights suggesting that he thinks DRM is as lame as the rest of us.
Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which “causes too much pain for legitmate buyers” while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are “huge problems” with DRM, he says, and “we need more flexible models, such as the ability to “buy an artist out for life” (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.
His short term advice: ‘People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then.'”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/14/bill-gates-on-the-future-of-drm/
Here it is! If the music industry said that all music could be sold DRM-free, then Apple is well-positioned to maintain the lead because of its superior music player–the iPod and its superior music management software-iTunes. Just think back in the day when all records would play on all record players … Technics had some of the best turntables. They led in their categories. Apple would do the same with music players.
Fine. If the record company wants me and all of my friends to pool our money and buy a CD and then rip it to all of our stuff (and there’s 7 of us). Fine. Screw them.
I’ll pay 2 bucks an album instead the 9.99 I’ve been paying on iTunes. If they want to restrict my music, I’m not going to let them profit from it.
Screw them.
Steve Jobs set a trap and Microsoft fell right into it.
Apple is now viewed as pro-freedom and anti-DRM even though Bill gates came out against DRM first.
Then Microsoft shoots itself in the foot by defending the very unpopular DRM standards.
Before Jobs’ open letter Apple was viewd by many as the Ipod monopoly that refused to let others play in their yard.
After the open letter, Apple is the defender of freedom and the Record Labels and now Microsoft become the bad guys!
Just brilliant.
Record companies will wake up eventually.
They’ll have to. Does anybody actually OWN a “CD Player” anymore? And if you do…do you actually USE it?
I know when I buy CD’s, I just pop it into my computer, copy it into iTunes, and transfer it onto my iPod. My “CD Player” is collecting dust in the closet.
‘the stars were already aligning’
Cancel or Allow?
just because someone has to say it, and it has not been said yet … allofmp3.com sells music in any format you want at any bit-rate you want without any DRM. The model of maximal consumer choice is one iTunes should be moving towards.
cue the comments about the Russian Mafia …
Well, yes there are people who still have a CD player, or in my case, a CD/DVD recorder. Some of us still appreciate the differances when music is played through quality (and large)multi-speakered systems. Ipod et al, as good as they are (yes, I have one), are more about convenience, than top-tier quality sound.
QUOTE
“Jason Reindorp, marketing director for Zune at Microsoft, said Mr. Jobs’s call for unrestricted music sales was “irresponsible, or at the very least naïve,” adding, “It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen.”
“He’s certainly a master of the obvious,” Mr. Reindorp said, adding that “the stars were already aligning” to loosen the restrictions.”
FALKIRK:
I know MDN already covered this, but the contradictions contained in Jason Reindorp’s statement, above, are World Class. Jobs is irresponsible to reccomend that DRM be removed and besides Jobs is only stating the obvious when he states that DRM should be removed.
Huh? That statement is so blatently contradictory that I’m amazed that the human brain could even conceived it.
I would consider Microsoft’s stance on DRM to be more sincere if Microsoft developed a 100% uncrackable DRM. Microsoft obvious cannot make an uncrackable DRM, made no apology for their incompetence, and has yet made no effort to remedy the situation.
Jay,
Rip your music into AIFF or Apple Lossless, then play it through an Airport Express that is hooked up to your hi-fi amp and quality speakers. It’s what I do.
Just because most people are happy with lower quality files doesn’t mean that you can’t make that solution work the way you want it to.
Yeah, Jobs is on the mountain alright, a mountain of 2 billion trax sold thru the iTMS.
MS is still trying to extract itself from the valley of muck from several failed online stores and iPod-wannabes.
I still think the lack or licensening of Fairplay won’t make a whit of difference. People will still overwhelmingly use iPods, iTunes & iTMS. They just work!
Apple bought FairPlay DRM as it was a prerequisite of the music honchos as the price for the iTunes music business model and Apple, at that time, wasn’t in a position to argue the point. That was a couple of years and 90 million iPods ago.
Today, a couple of hundred million people have access to devices that can use the Apple media ecosystem (iTunes/QuickTime/iPod/TV/iPhone) and that number is only going to increase. Apple, not the RIAA/MPAA/etc, controls the code that enables these devices/software to access that content. With the Apple Corps lawsuit settled, Apple is free to enter the music business directly, bypassing the RIAA members, as the only intermediary between the artists and the consumer without a complicating lawsuit. Stated simply, the playing field is a lot more level than it was back in the day.
The motion picture and music industry seems unwilling to recognize that the business model that has lined their pockets for so many years is changing and at a pace faster than they are willing to admit. Their business model will have to change regardless of what decisions Apple makes or what artificial market constraints the MPAA/RIAA enforce through legal agreement or lobbyist bought law. The market will take care of it, and if Apple isn’t prepared to deal with it someone else will. Steve Jobs knows this all too well.
No reasonable person disputes the right of an artist to reasonable compensation for their work, nor that of others who invest in the development of media. Reasonable people do have a legitimate right to expect that DRM, bundling and consumer restrictive trade practices espoused by the RIAA/MPAA members not be used to rip off artists or end users for the excessive profits of middlemen. That’s the bottom line.
His name is “rine-dorp”
Man, that’s a load to shoulder.
It would be TOO funny if the record industry accepted that DRM was dead and agreed to distribute their online libraries as DRM free, leaving M$ still paying a buck a Zune to Universal 8^)
Oh the irony.
Jim: I think it’s hypocritical for a comapny (in this case Apple) and a CEO (in this case Jobs) that rely on predictable enforcement of intellectual property rights (in this case commercial software copyrights) to provide profitability and benefit for shareholders, to ask ANYONE else (in this case musicians and their representatives – the much-maligned record labels) to forego their rights to benefit from their own creativity, work and financial investment. I’ll take Jobs seriously when Aperture or Final Cut Pro is treated the same way that he’s advocating for music.
Did you read the lengthy open letter? Show us the paragraph where Jobs asked “ANYONE else … to forego their rights”. The copyright still belongs to them, DRM or not. All he is saying is the vast majority of music out there is sold without DRM and asking a very small subset of music business to implement it is silly. It only takes one rip from a CD to propagate on P2P to make the DRM on every song sold from music download business pointless. Without DRM, the music download business may even get bigger because the open approach allows many to make the investment. He is not asking for a sacrifice, he is advising them on how to make money. This comes from someone in charge of a company that benefits more from having the DRM in place. Hardly hypocritical, is it?
AFAIK, none of Apple products are DRMed in the way to limit the purchasers’ right to use them like the music industry wanted. Comparing them is silly.
Falkirk: Apple is now viewed as pro-freedom and anti-DRM even though Bill gates came out against DRM first.
Bill Gates is not against DRM. Microsoft is the biggest DRM proponent out there. Long before Apple came up with iTunes (Music) Store and FairPlay, Microsoft has backed DRM and TPM initiatives. What he has issue with is the fact that in the music business DRM helps his biggest competitor, Apple, and Gates can’t handle having a competitor kicking his ass. His telling people to buy CDs is just a way to tell people to stay away from Apple as the biggest store selling DRMed music.
“We’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen.'”
– Love DRM or my family starves: why Steve Ballmer doesn’t Get It The Register (October 7th, 2004)
“Most people still steal music.”
– Ballmer talks tech Zdnet (October 5th, 2004)
“I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.”
– money.cnn.com
Attributed quotes:
“DRM is the future.”
“We don’t have a monopoly. We have market share. There’s a difference.”
“Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers.”
– Speech at a Microsoft Developers conference
Alex: Now that’s a great thought, thanks! I already convert to AIFF and burn to CDs the stuff I download. I could try AE as well for downloads.
I was mostly thinking of listening to commercial CDs, though. Putting them on my iPod is great, but to me the absolute best sound is playing the commercial CD through a home theater/music system.
This sure is getting good coverage. New York Times covered it and it’s on CNN as I type this. There’s public debate on the issue now.
That’s what Jason Reindorp doesn’t get. People listen to Steve Jobs; nobody cares what Jason Reindorp thinks.
Falkirk said:
“Huh? That statement is so blatently contradictory that I’m amazed that the human brain could even conceived it.”
Yeah, Reindorp is doing a little too much recreational Zuning.
I’m sure Jobs let him have an ear full in his direction.
Jobs is all for the customer not necessarily for the business. It should be easy for the customer to get what they want and they’ll pay for it. But idiots from Microsoft only want to make the customers experience a fricken nightmare and are really succeeding in this experience on all fronts. Great examples,Zune, Vista, and now Office with it’s non-compatible document structure.
Jay,
If you’ve invested in a decent system, you’re the type of person who’ll also invest in decent headphones so your iPod sounds as good as it can – I use Shire E3c in-ear phones. Feel free to email me and I can give you details of my setup offline. I think I’ve hijacked this thread enough!
“nobody cares what Jason Reindorp thinks”
And Reindorp, Jr. still thinks getting a Zune for Christmas was some sort of punishment. He cries himself to sleep with a heavy brown brick on his nightstand. His classmates weren’t calling him “Rein Dork” before he brought the Zune to school. Isn’t this child abuse?
Apple Inc. should start it’s own record label/company, call it Apple Records and distribute DRM free music.
Microsoft and the music companies just fell into a heffalump trap set by Jobs.
In the Disney movie the heffalump never came along to fall in the trap set by Pooh and Piglet, this time real life bests the world of Pooh!
“Microsoft, you are coming to a sad realization…Cancel or Allow?”
I love big brother.
Little Jason had this to say a few years ago…
“Apple is probably still riding the wave of their initial launch,” said Jason Reindorp, a group manager in Microsoft’s Windows digital media unit. “They have spent an inordinate amount of money to generate awareness around their closed ecosystem. (But) as people get more sophisticated in this area they are going to be getting more frustrated with a closed ecosystem. I think the market will kind of self-correct as things get more mainstream.”
iTunes ushers in a year of change
By John Borland, and Ina Fried, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: April 26, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
Obviously the prognosticator of Prognosticators!
“I’ll take Jobs seriously when Aperture or Final Cut Pro is treated the same way that he’s advocating for music.”
Um, Aperture and Final Cut Pro, and in fact ALL of Apple’s software IS ALREADY treated the way he’s advocating.
There’s no DRM (or the software equivalent, product activation) on any of Apple’s software. You can install 1 copy on as many computers as you can get your hands on.
But Apple trusts most of its users to do the legal and ethical thing, and pay for something that provides value to them. THIS is what Jobs is advocating for downloaded music – not what some crazy posters here seem to have made up their heads, that he wants music companies and artists to quit getting paid for what they own.
Sheesh. Try actually reading the letter. (Or if you did that and you’re still confused, maybe you need a remedial reading comprehension course)
@falkirk
I agree totally.
Most posters appear to have missed the point here. Steve Jobs makes several important points:
1. Apple introduced fairplay at the insistence of the music publishers
2. If Fairplay is compromised the iTunes store will close in 3 days
3. The vast majority of music is DRM-free, and easily copied from a CD
But perhaps more importantly, Apple is firmly positioning themselves in the anti-DRM camp, and on the side of the consumers. Microsoft has, instead, illustrated how out of touch they are with the consumer – this is “corporate speak” and may play well with industry execs, but comes across as stuffy and out of touch.
If DRM is abolished and piracy remains rampant, the music industry will have to find a new way to deliver a return to the artists and the industry. While DRM may be cumbersome and annoying, it is the only game in town right now and it constantly amazes me that people grumble about DRM on selfish grounds but never fee obliged to suggest an alternative which would put food on the table of the artists. Ummm. Would you write, rehearse and perform music if there was no guarantee you would get paid?
If Steve Jobs is saying DRM has to go, perhaps he has a new solution? If he does, it will be a radical rethink of the whole industry.
And I don’t think it will be ads on iTunes or product placement in songs.
Any ideas?
Zune is commercially irrelevant. Who really cares what an obscure executive of a defunct product at Microsoft thinks?
Another thing, why is it that some insignificant cog at Microsoft was quoted and not J Allard, Microsoft’s “rising star” in digital entertainment? What’s J’s take?
Speak, J, speak. Here’s your chance to dictate the future of digital entertainment. You can lead the way to the promised land, define the new paradigm, set the new standard, and blaze the trail to musical nirvana.
I’m waiting…because I ran out of cliches.
I suppose the genius that is Allard hasn’t yet received his orders what to think and how to say it from Ballmer.
Jobs’ statement is brilliant. It brings public attention to the music labels, but it hass one other major effect: it torpedoes Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace. Think about it: Zune downloads play only on Zune players. In order to get a song from Zune, you have to buy Zune points, and you can virtually NEVER use up all of your points evenly. So Microsoft gets more of your money than their entitled to (as with most Microsoft products).
Let’s say DRM was abolished. Now someone who owns a Zune, but who didn’t want to pay Zune points and only wanted to pay for the songs they wanted, could buy music from iTunes and load it on their Zune (why anyone would want to do that, even if Microsoft allowed it, is beyond me, but this is a hypothetical and fictional person). Microsoft doesn’t get millions of dollars of Zune points money in its accounts, but still has to pay Universal money for each Zune sold (about $500 annually, so not that bad).
Jobs is simultaneously taking out the music industry’s hold over Apple and undercutting Microsoft’s online Zune store. Brilliant.
Jobs’ statement is brilliant. It brings public attention to the music labels, but it hass one other major effect: it torpedoes Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace. Think about it: Zune downloads play only on Zune players. In order to get a song from Zune, you have to buy Zune points, and you can virtually NEVER use up all of your points evenly. So Microsoft gets more of your money than their entitled to (as with most Microsoft products).
Let’s say DRM was abolished. Now someone who owns a Zune, but who didn’t want to pay Zune points and only wanted to pay for the songs they wanted, could buy music from iTunes and load it on their Zune (why anyone would want to do that, even if Microsoft allowed it, is beyond me, but this is a hypothetical and fictional person). Microsoft doesn’t get millions of dollars of Zune points money in its accounts, but still has to pay Universal money for each Zune sold (about $500 annually, so not that bad).
Jobs is simultaneously taking out the music industry’s hold over Apple and undercutting Microsoft’s online Zune store. Brilliant.
As for Gates being against DRM, if that’s the case, explain to us why Microsoft won’t allow third parties to have access to Office file formats, why QuickTime can’t play Windows Media files, why there’s no longer a Mac version of Windows Media that can play encoded WMA files, etc.
What’s the use of DRM if it can be cracked? The reality is, there is no such thing as rock solid DRM. So, your question what will replace DRM is irrelevant.
The only “solution” (other than eliminating DRM) is to:
1. Ban any type of digitized music that can be owned or copied by individual consumers, including CDs and downloadable files.
2. Have persons pay for live entertainment.
Don’t think for a moment that this is going to happen. The genie is out of the bottle, he won’t go back, and you can’t make him go back.
If you are concerned about people stealing music, you will have better success as a philosopher than a programmer. A person that believes that stealing is wrong won’t steal because it violates their code of ethics.
The next question is less philosophical and more economical, why engage in a business where every customer is thought of as a thief conspiring to steal your profits? If the anxiety of being unable to prevent millions of people from staling your money is too great, get out the business. There are other occupations with far less worries.
I can’t believe you accept Jobs’ words as honest, really. His tech talk about not being able to license FairPlay is as believable as his saying the iPhone won’t be open to third party software because it could break Cingular’s network (oh, please, really!). Come on, guys, we are talking about Mr. Steve “we won’t do Flash-based iPods” Jobs!
The whole idea of getting all feel good from a corporation’s official announcement so obviously spinny is… brrr!
When you’re on top of the mountain, that’s where you make your pronouncements from, Jason.
You mac users are an elite group of snobs. Too bad your junk doesn’t work with 95% of the world. My ZUNE, my PC, my treo 700w and my XBOX all work together with everthing else.
Get off your high horse. I can’t wait for IBM to take Iphone name.
LOSERS.
Reading all the reactions, here and elsewhere, to Jobs open letter is just hysterical.
Everyone slamming Jobs about his comments about DRM-less music seem to have conveniently forgotten that Bill Gates made an anti-DRM opinion not too long ago and didn’t get these kind of reactions.
What hypocrisy.
Tex, Tex, Tex…
You are a sad little troll. Get it right… It’s Cisco, not IBM, and no way they are changing the name.
And by the way, Tex, my iPod (3 of them), treo 650 and Razr, windows XP and Vista, 2 versions of Linux, and ALL of the TOP rated PC games, and oh, yes OSX (The real Vista) run on my MacPro.
If our stuff is so bad why does your precious MSoft COPY everything from itunes to iPhoto, to trying, but failing miserably at making a movie dvd?
LOSER!
Have a great day!
@TEX
Sounds to me like you have never used a Mac.
You will sonny. You will.
And when you do, you will love it…
2 years ago i thought the same as you. After 30 years in the industry, formal Microsoft MCSE certifications, and 15 years running a Microsoft-based IT business, I am a living breathing example of the halo effect.
I bought an iPod. The rest, as they say, is history.
The Microsoft era is over.
I wish Apple had the money — the wherewithal — to pull out of Norway and slam the door. If Apple is important enough that the government seeks sanctions against the company, it’s important enough that the hell to be paid for pulling out would fall on the politicians’heads. The profits Apple accrues from that rinky-dink crag of rocks and crinkly bits are negligible; the population is too small.
Apple is being blackmailed by a country that probably is being bankrolled in this game of political football by Microsoft, a company far more wealthy than Norway itself. It would be interesting to follow the cash bonuses Norway’s “lawmakers” and other “officials” have banked or spent on new Volvos and Accuras.
Take a stand, Apple. Pull out.
Yessss, let’s defend the corporations and their lovable “we reserve the right to change all the conditions on your license as we wish, you little consumer microbe” contracts and such against those corrupt Noweggians. Even more, let’s all go SONY and rootkit our computers. It is sooooo right!!!
What pisses me off most is that every fanboi takes Steve’s words seriously. Come on, guys, it’s been too many Macworlds not to know when a discourse comes from the Ministry of Truth. We know Steve.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/06/will_steve_jobs_drop.html