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  dextr0us

  

  

The RIAA wields the most power in the battle over DRM. Check out yesterday's show for Steve Jobs take on DRM, and why he hates it, but after we posted our show, the RIAA responded with this lil' nugget of wisdom. "Apple’s offer to license Fairplay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels. There have been many services seeking a license to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time." Um, RIAA, that's not what apple said at all. They weren't even implying that. Sure, we were implying that in our show yesterday, but Jobs sure wasn't. He argued his secrets needed to be kept and that lisencing fairplay was basically not an option. Either the RIAA A) glossed over his letter really quickly, which we find pretty unlikely, or B) the RIAA screwing with Steve Jobs. In either case, this could be the first time I've ever gone on record saying I kind of see the RIAA's point. If fairplay were opened to competitors, or released to a managing consortium, that could be the best of all worlds. It's basically already the standard anyway, what with the iPod and iTunes accounting for something like 85% or greater of the music download market. I mentioned this to our producer adam, which scared the crap out of him. He immediately demanded an explanation as to why I could even think of agreeing with such a corrupt entity, bent on fleecing the consumer. I favor the subscription model instead of purchasing tracks, so that's why I'm not as opposed to DRM. I think there should be a place where DRM exists for people like me, who'd prefer subscriptions, but then also a place to purchase DRM free tracks. We're not very confident that it'll ever happen, but that's the best case scenario... we think at least. I need to take a shower. I feel dirty after actually understanding the RIAA. Blech.

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Tags:	bennett check daily drm industry music randall riaa tech techcehckdaily techcheckdaily

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