Comments on: Apple's Jobs calls for DRM-free music
Record companies are the ones who demand digital rights management technology, not Apple, CEO says in rare open letter.
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publicity stunt or not, I sure am.
everyone what a great idea it was.
company's web site is now a publicity stunt?
And I suppose ignoring the issue (people whining about "closed"
iTunes) would be considered arrogant.
Kobayashi Maru.
What, exactly, leads you to make this assertion?
nothing for the iTunes/iPod combo. I have 2 iPods and have
others purchase iPods and NONE of the music on any of them
are from the iTunes store.
Secondly, this is 100% correct in him saying this. The recording
industry is the factor pushing DRM. They don't want to let go of
their grip. Look at their failed attempt on CDs screwing up
people's computers and the like.
I find it ironic that as Steve said in his announcement
"Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European
countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation
should redirect their energies towards persuading the music
companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two
and a half of the big four music companies are located right in
their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by
Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony
BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company.
Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others
DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.
Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."
True...so true
Any idea what Jobs means when he speaks of "the most serious problem is that licensing a [FairPlay] DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak"?
Most encryption works on a public key/private key system. To decrypt the file you must have access to the key. CSS, the encryption used for DVD's, was broken years ago because one of the manufacturers let the key out. Since then, DVD's have been easy to decrypt and copy.
> of "the most serious problem is that licensing a
> [FairPlay] DRM involves disclosing some of its
>secrets to many people in many companies, and
> history tells us that inevitably these secrets
> will leak"?
If the details of Fairplay are leaked, then they will get hacked, hence, goodbye DRM. So what Jobs is saying that if 10,000 developers have access to Fairplay, it won't be effective any longer.
These are words, and hopefully words that will some day end this corporate fascism over consumers.
To that end, Hollywood's DRM demands are a direct threat to this model, since you cannot openly license your DRM schemes. Openly licensing DRM schemes defeats their point, as it reveals their technologies and becomes only a matter of (usually a very short) time before it is defeated.
So at the end of the day, the only real effect they have is penalizing the legitimate customer. If you buy the product legitimately, you've paid as much for something that you once had the ability to play back to yourself anywhere -- as long as you could afford the target medium -- that you can now only use in a very limited scope.
Either that, or you've decided not to even bother anymore, which -- guess what Hollywood? -- is doing about as much to help slumping sales as illegal downloading...
but I bought only one CD till date. Why? Because of DRM. I won't
give a dime for something that I cannot possess. How do I know
that in 20 years I will still be able to play the music with the DRM
of today on the equipment of tomorrow?
So I still buy my music the old fashioned way: go down to the CD
store, buy the CD, and rip it to MP3 (or even better -- lossless). I
have amassed hundreds of CDs this way (I paid probably a
fortune). I would surely buy it from iTunes as it is usually
cheaper and convenient -- but please, no DRM!
If Jobs was so against DRM - why are songs by performers such as Avril Lavinge (spelling error, sorry) being sold WITH DRM from Itunes, when the label itself does not require DRM on its songs??
Apple insists on putting the DRM on the songs!
Steve Jobs should jump off a bridge, I'm sick and tired of hearing about how itunes, ipod, mac etc is better than everyone else in the world when there are MAJOR shortfalls on all of their products.
I wish the Government would arrest him and put him in jail over the Options Scandal that Apple is going through, its the only way to shut him up and end his blatent over-the-top marketing/lying .
with. Someone makes a product you don't like, "Off with their
head". Viva La Revolution!
Second, the iTunes Store is not a big money maker. It covers
distribution costs, studio royalties with a little bit left over. The
money is in iPods not in iTunes. Read Apple's financial filings if
you don't believe me.
"In the letter, Jobs says Apple was forced to create a DRM system
to get the world's four largest record companies onboard with
the iTunes Store."
So you think the music companies were actually ok with DRM-
free music/movies? The whole DRM thing was just Apple feeling
a bit evil? Tell you what, get on out there and start negotiations
with those music labels. You can provide the world with DRM-
free content. I'm sure they are dying to get their digital media
out there with no copy protection attached.
other Apple haters) just could admit that you're angry because
you are poor.
Apple creates premium products and premium products are by
definition priced so that more than 50% of the consumers who
wants them are to poor to buy them. That is how you create a
sustained brand value. Poor and uncool people cannot be seen
using the premium product. It would kill the brand.
Its people like you who makes us Apple customers feel richer,
smarter and with better taste than the average guy.
So instead of bashing on Apple and Steve Jobs with confused
arguments that is not based on facts and completely void of
logical reasoning, why don't you just admit that you are angry
because you are poor? And stupid? And totally without all forms
of taste?
I mean, your life sucks anyway so why not admit it? Just don't
blame it on Apple because Apple and Steve Jobs didn't create
your misery. They just created vastly superior products and
services that you can't afford to buy.
Life suck and then you die.
completely delusional and in so much self-denial to think all those
apple adds are false wake up from your coma that is your pathetic
PC (Piece of Crap).
Josh Chandler
www.techoriphic.com
Where did you read about a unified DRM?? Literacy is overrated, I suppose.
"a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded
in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play
music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music
which is playable on all players."
This is clearly not Unified Drm. Just read it more again.
As for not licencing FairPlay, read the article more closely.
"a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is
that if our DRM system is compromised and their music
becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small
number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their
entire music catalog from our iTunes store."
He then ties that to licencing FairPlay by stating
"Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can
no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big
four music companies"
I don't mind pointing out inconsistencies, but do get your facts
straight!
Licensing is not an issue if there is no DRM to begin with.
some agreements from the Record Labels, Apple can't license their
DRM to other companies because the actual Labels want their
music sold on iTunes because of Market Share and Apple is just a
distributor, not the actual owner of the music so they have to play
the rules of the game. This is all about money and how the record
labels want every penny from every album they sell. If it weren't for
Apple, we wouldn't have 99cent downloads. If this is how he feels,
then that would be great for everyone...
of reasoning is to be expected, what with your inclusion of "i-pod"
and "Job."
No one else in the tech and entertainment industry understand consumers as Apple and Steve Jobs.
When reading his open letter, you feel his confidence that in a DRM free music world, Apple would be a bigger winner than today. It is clear that iPod is more popular than iTunes, and as Apple make little profit from music sales, they would love to sell iPods to music lover who may prefer other music stores.
What is also interesting is Steve's clarity and vision which we never see from MSFT, DELL, HP or ADBE on how we user would like to see and use technology.
When was the last time Michael Dell wrote something of this quality. He talks about cutting bonuses, reduce staff, increase sales budgets, reorganizing the business etc etc. He is clearly more interesting in quarterly earnings conf. calls with analyst than writing vision letter on how DELL customer would like their use of tech change their world for the better. (we all knwo what Dell said about Apple last time)
I CAN imagine that world. It was what the world was like BEFORE APPLE STARTED SELLING MUSIC.
What Jobs is talking about is a world where the iTunes Store and
others sell music online at reasonable prices and reasonable people
don't steal it. You know, like the way software is sold. Excluding of
course, Windows, with it's own DRM requiring activation codes.
some of the commentors to this blog. The pre-iTunes world that
you long for is still available in every detail and facet of its
orginal form. CDs, portable, medium-priced and (extremely)
high-end CD decks are all available. Pre-iPod MP3-style players
are also available. You can still buy MD players. You can still
steal non-DRM music using P-T-P software and you can still
buy, borrow or steal CDs, rip and burn them again or copy them
to your MP3 player. iTunes and iPods are OPTIONS and millions
of music-lovers all over the world have chosen that option
because it works and it is convenient. No one is forcing you to
use iTunes or iPods. If you have a problem with it, JUST SAY NO
and quit whining. It's really starting to get boring.
(No, I'm not an APPLE fan, have never bought an iTunes song.)
Steve Jobs doesn't give a rat's a$$ whether there is DRM or not as long as whatever the medium is can play on an iPod. In fact, it is probably cheaper for him to not have to deal with DRM. Don't get it twisted, he is not preaching for the sake of the end-user.
The problem with the record industry is that they helped create a standard, CD's and CD players, without the forsight that eventually people would rip and distribute thier content. DRM for music is nothing more than a retro-fit solution. DVD's have the same problem although they at least tried to encrypt the contents.
RIAA, you want to stop people from stealing your stuff, quit trying to duct-tape DRM onto your current goods and create new goods. Create a new medium and phase out CD's. You did it before with records and cassettes. This time think ahead.
always costs more than it saves.
DRM doesn't work. Accept the fact and move on, or it will cost you.
In real life people listen to hundreds of songs per month, and if they are interested in listening new songs, not the same old suff they bought last year, subscription could be quite reasonable solution for some...
I personally do not use subscription because current DRM rules are too awkward and restricitive, but I certainly spend more on buying music than monthly subscription fee would cost me.
The trick is to figure out how to sell music, videos and such, in a way that people would prefer to obtain them legally. That piracy would just be a fringe aberration that doesn't really harm the business.
I'm not smart enough to know the answer to this. I hope someone figures it out, because what we have now with DRM doesn't work.
cannot be legislated"? When this happens let me know what kind of
car you have and where it is.
a way that people would prefer to obtain them legally."
Well, that's what Apple is trying to do with the iTunes store.
They have this neat jukebox software (iTunes) that lets you
organize and manage your music library (including burning
tracks to CD or loading them onto your iPod), and they have
their store integrated right into iTunes. In the iTunes music
store, you have an effective search and navigation system so
that you can easily find what you are looking for, you can
browse for similar music, you can play preview clips to make
sure you've *really* found what you're looking for. You know
that you'll get a high-quality recording of exactly the song you
want, complete with artwork and other metadata, the song will
accurately file itself into your jukebox, your downloads are
managed by iTunes and optimized so that the smaller files come
first, and they come from known high-bandwidth servers on
high-speed connections. In other words, Apple has developed a
system for the legal distribution of music which provides enough
advantages for the average user that it's worth the $1 just for
the convenience and quality of service. Billions of songs later,
Apple has proven its point: Give people convenience and qualty
and they'll pay for the product. After all, just about everything
that the iTunes store sells is also available illegally, without
DRM, and for free...and that doesn't seem to have hurt Apple's
sales that much.
I wonder if the movie studios will figure it out as well. You know
they could put most of the movie pirates out of business if they
did universal release dates and had movie theaters sell DVDs of
new releases starting on day of release...and with theaters
converting over to digital projection, all the excuses for NOT
doing it this way will go away....
You don't pay $10 / month for a song you could buy for one dollar...that WOULD be stupid. You pay it to listen to whatever you want, and not be limited to the various songs you've purchased online. Seriously, how many of the CDs you've purchased (if you're honest) in your lifetime that you can definitely say you still listen to...all of them, half of them?
Hopefully it's the former and buying songs one by one (or CD) works for you. It doesn't for me, and I'm ok with paying a monthly fee to access (and take with me) whatever's out there...it's the variety...spice of life...you know? Subscription models introduce you to all kinds of new music...I'd be really upset if that was no longer available.
Hey Jobs, why do you continue to cripple MacOS so it can't be run on any x86 hardware? Are you that scared of Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Asus?
For a company like Apple to call for a "DRM-free world" is the height of hypocrisy.
the Windows ecosystem is that it runs on any piece of junk with an
x86 processor. I'd love to blame all Windows problems on
Microsoft, but the fact is that if they didn't have to support all sorts
of cheap junk, Windows would be better than it is. I'm not saying it
would be good mind you, but it would be better.
their software run on someone else's hardware??? It's not about
crippling the OS. It's about creating a seamless user experience.
Look at what years of being able to run Windows on any old box
got us? On the positive side, a huge industry was created. On
the down side, consumers continue to spend needless hours/
days of their lives just trying to get their computers to work.
If the any-old-piece-of-hardware PC approach actually meant a
pleasant experience for the consumer, that would be one thing.
But it hasn't. And never will. Apple is able to deliver a superior
product because they control everything. You may not like this,
but I do.
I like the fact that my Mac just works. I like the fact that I never
have driver headaches, nor am I erradicting viruses and spyware
on a daily basis. I don't know a single PC user who doesn't
wrestle with his or her PC on a regular basis. Apple's "closed"
system is a huge benefit to the consumer. I wouldn't want it any
other way.
value, you make money -- hand over fist if you're also
marketing-savvy, articulate, sexy by design, and efficient about
operations. And that's why Jobs-bashing misses the point.
The iTunes store has always been about providing real value --
not just to consumers but also to the copyright holders. As he
summed up the history of the store's success in the context of
the iPod's success, "So far we have met our commitments to the
music companies to protect their music, and we have given
users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for
legally downloaded music."
But if you are conspiracy-minded, remember that Jobs has a very
large stake in Disney, a major copyright holder. What works for
music might one day work for movies and TV shows. Everyone is
motivated by self-interest to some extent. In this case, Jobs has
articulated a vision that we can imagine as good for everyone --
consumers, manufacturers, and the software and content
industries.
And at the same time, Jobs has clearly fired a shot across the
bow of the big four music companies, which he not only names
but ironically points to their part-European ownership. If Jobs
feels the squeeze from European consumer groups, he is now
redirecting it back to the source of the problem. Steve Jobs has
put the music labels on notice. It may just be the right time to
do that, as pricing issues will resurface with licensing extension
negotiations between Apple and the labels, and DRM might also
be a major issue involving the Beatles music.
Tony Bove's iTimes
www.tonybove.com/blog/
AAC at 128 bit (for comparison, its quality is about the same as ripping in MP3 format at 192 bit, with a smaller file size) is about the best you can get and still fit your favorite few thousand songs and shows on a decent-sized player.
If you need CD-quality that badly - and I know that there are a few audiophiles out there who do - you should probably invest in a CD changer for your car, not a player that's designed to hold your whole music collection in *near* CD-quality sound, whether it be an iPod, Zune, PSP, Palm, or SanDisk.
But if what you're looking for is to avoid the lower quality of the MP3 method, you might want to avoid ripping in that format entirely (if you do). The ever-popular Wikipedia describes the problems it has rather well. Among others:
"... a natural side effect of the MP3 method is that it suffers a loss of information over time - bass frequencies - resulting in, often even to an untrained ear, distinguishable disfiguration of these frequencies, which can not be parried no matter how high bitrate the material is encoded in. Among the current, popular audio encoders, MP3 is alone in having this particular disadvantage."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding)
Happy listening, music lover. May you continue to rock on completely with some brand new components.
I bet if someone built a website called "Steve Hates DRM .com" & posted zips of installers for Shake, Apature,Final Cut Pro, & any other overpriced Apple Software, along with the encryption keys, Steve & Apple's legal department would be suing a a heartbeat. Why Steve? I thought you didn't like DRM? A hole hypocrite. Yeah.Steve cares about consumers, Right. And my name's Zanny Blowzdogs.
Allowing the possibility of breaking a rule is not the same as
ADVOCATING that the rule be broken. It is also not the same as
IGNORING those braking the rule.
For example, most cars can break most speed limits, but that
doesn't mean the car manufacturers advocate speeding. It also
does not make speeding legal. The DRM approach to this
problem would be to force car designers to make cars that
CANNOT brake a speed limit. Notice that nobody is doing that.
Hope that helps you understand the difference.
by Apple unencrypted, and can be freely copied. Hell, Mac OS X
and all of Apple's consumer-grade applications don't even need
a serial number to install and use. As for the pro apps (with the
exception of Logic Pro, which uses a USB dongle for historical
reasons), all they recquire is a (easily copied) serial number to
install, like any professional application.
And guess what? The software still gets strong sales. Apple is
still the #1 platform for media production.
As for Steve and apple "caring for consumers", just step inside
an Apple Store and look at the service provided at the "Genious
Bar". What other company has customer service like that?
manage, please do a little of research.
A lot of people in the industry of content creation are in debt
with Steve Jobs and the people at Apple for the
"democratization" of the profesional video industry with the
launch of FCP and the software related to it.
Before FCP, only big companies were capable to afford the
purchase of editing technology who cost over 50K (in the best
case scenario). Today, and thank to apple, you can have the
same quality of software and results for under 12K (in the worst
case scenario). And what is more important: before FCP you
were forced to buy expensive propietary hardware that ONLY
work with his software. With Apple products that choice depends
on you.
OK, I am agree with you that the apple team may sue you if you
download an apple software from a page as you said, but: Why
someone have to do that? Apple software is really affordable.
- Idea well worth testing --- TEST IT OUT!
- by onlyauser February 6, 2007 5:31 PM PST
- Who really knows if this is a ggod or bad idea for record companies. Mr. Jobs would be as fine a expert on the subject as anyone.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 3 pages (132 Comments)The only real way to answer this once and for all is by experimenting with selling DRM free music files like EMI has been doing. If all the record companies and digital music websites did some serious and complete testing then the results would illustrate the facts. Does DRM matter or not?
Also, subscription schemes would not have to be abandoned if music files that are 'sold' did not have DRM and 'rented' music could include DRM. There could be many different ways to do it.
Test Mr. Jobs idea out!