PriceSCAN Blog

The sans-Apple angle to Universal's move comes despite Steve Jobs' call for dumping DRM (see "How Steve Jobs Could Show He's Sincere About Eliminating DRM"). Jobs' herald has already been answered, however imperfectly, by EMI in its decision to offer at least some of its catalogue on iTunes without DRM, albeit at a slightly higher price ("So The Whole Digital Rights Fight Is Over A Lousy Thirty Cents?"). By offering DRM-free music through e-tailers like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Real and so forth – but not iTunes – Universal Music Group appears to be turning Jobs' initiative against him, using the persistence of DRM on UGM's iTunes downloads to engineer a competitive disadvantage for Apple, presumably to undermine the supremacy of the dominant player in internet music sales. Perhaps the intent is to acquire leverage in ongoing iTunes royalty negotiations with Cupertino.
Between the rather low value placed on copy protection by EMI and Universal's seeming use of the technology as a tool for corporate jousting, one has to question the anti-copyright violation arguments for DRM as put forth by the RIAA and others. Perhaps to truly appreciate this, one has to frame the issue historically. Remember when dubbing to cassette destroyed music sales, or when the VCR annihilated the market for VHS movies, or perhaps when the copy machine made book purchases a thing of the past? No? That, of course, is because these calamities, all darkly prophesied by the content industry, never occurred. I doubt these facts are lost on anyone, including the Cassandras of the music industry.
Thus, as indie labels and artists, having occasionally produced music someone might actually want to listen to, freely sell without DRM, the majors and the media colossi that own them may be realizing their flagging sales have more to do with lousy product than piracy. With high-def video downloads potentially threatening the DRM models of HD-DVD and Blu-ray ("High-Def Disks? We Don't Need No Stinking High-Def Disks"), I suspect the HD video market may be next to experience the death of DRM. But fear not, all ye DRM proponents; for a new recording technology will surely emerge and engender new calls for copy protection.
Foolish ideas, like the Phoenix, tend to rise from the ashes.