Early Signs of DRM's Death?

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=c4fe4fe1-bd7c-489b-bfdf-54991a0587be">http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=c4fe4fe1-bd7c-489b-bfdf-54991a0587be</a><br /><br /><i>"Canadian download store Puretracks is turning up the volume on the free-the-music movement by selling songs online without copy protection. Toronto-based Puretracks Inc. yesterday announced it was selling MP3 files from independent labels, including Nettwerk Music Group, Independent Online Distribution Alliance and England's Beggar's Banquet, without digital rights management (DRM), or the technology that restricts how a song can be copied and transferred."</i><br /><br />Kudos to them. I personally gave up on Napster and Yahoo! Music over a year ago and have no interest in trying a new DRM solution. I still buy some music online, but mostly from independent artists. In fact, <a href="http://www.adriennepierce.com">Adrienne Pierce</a>, one of my favorite independents, has music on <a href="http://www.nettwerk.com/productions/artistpage.jsp?artist_id=1000">Nettwerk Music Group's site</a>, one of the companies PureTracks works with, so perhaps her music will get more exposure on the unlocked MP3 section of the site. Here's hoping within a few years, we can all look back on device-locked DRM and laugh about how ridiculously cumbersome and Orwellian it was and be glad it is dead. :beer:

[PPCRules]

Puretracks' move comes on the heels of an open letter by Apple CEO Steve Jobs to major record labels two weeks ago in which he urged the dropping of DRM to fight piracy and spur sales of legal online music.

That's just great. Now Jobs will go down in history as the person who first thought up the idea of abandoning DRM and single-handed brought it about. Just like he is generally credited with inventing the digital audio player and online music sales.

[Jason Lee]

I don't care who kills it. Just so long as it dies... :twisted:

[Paragon]

I don't care who kills it. Just so long as it dies... :twisted:

I just thought it was worth repeating. ;)

[Gerard]

I wonder if Apple will seek royalties on all non-DRM'd music... since Steve J thought of it first.

[mv]

I wonder if Apple will seek royalties on all non-DRM'd music... since Steve J thought of it first.

Very likely. Anyway, DRM sucks.

[Snail]

Yay! :clap: Let's pray that it happens... I for one would buy all my music online if I could use it as I choose.

[Steve Jordan]

Now Jobs will go down in history as the person who first thought up the idea of abandoning DRM and single-handed brought it about...

...when everyone knows many e-book sellers have been selling non-DRM books for quite some time now...

[ricksfiona]

You got give it to the music industry though... They aren't going down without a fight... But they'll have to find a new way to screw the consumer AND artist...

[Gerard]

It's somewhat amusing, but mostly refreshing, to see Nettwerk promoting an anti-DRM position. I bought a CD by the Be Good Tanyas a few years ago ('Chinatown' in 2003) and the first thing I did with it was try to rip MP3s from the thing with my PC. The CD installed a player software onto the PC, which would only play at 56kbps. I'd failed to notice the tiny note on the back picture, beside the UPC strip:


COPY CONTROLLED. This disc contains Copy Control technology. It is designed to be compatible with CD Audio players, DVD Players, and PC - MS Windows, Pentium 2, 233MHz, 64MB RAM or higher, Mac OS 8.6-9* with the CarbonLib extension and Mac OS X.


It played on the PC, true enough, but at 56kbps it sounded like they'd used a bucket for a recording studio. Their so-called 'copy control' was actually more of an 'enjoyment control' software, forcing me to suffer an inferior listening experience if I wished to use my PC (or Pocket PC) for playback.

On starting up the CD on the PC I was shown the message "To listen to the CD a number of files need to be updated on your PC. Select OK to install, Cancel to quit." How unpleasant.

So I ripped it at 320kbps anyway, using AudioGrabber with a line-out from my stereo. No way I was going to start using random software from every distributor who felt the need to protect their music from me. I wanted to listen to the thing I'd just purchase in the manner I preferred; using my Pocket PC.

But it seems Nettwerk has changed their attitude, and I congratulate them, even if it's a bit late in the game.

[DaleReeck]

Actually, I believe Steve Jobs when he talks about getting rid of DRM. Buying from iTunes isn't too bad because you can just burn a CD and then rip the music without DRM like you would any normal CD. The fact that iTunes hasn't tried and "fixed" this hole is a good sign.

[unxmully]

Actually, I believe Steve Jobs when he talks about getting rid of DRM. Buying from iTunes isn't too bad because you can just burn a CD and then rip the music without DRM like you would any normal CD. The fact that iTunes hasn't tried and "fixed" this hole is a good sign.

What amuses me the most is that three or four weeks ago, Apple announced that they'll be licencing fairplay to other vendors.

And now it seems that really they're licencing nothing because they want to stop using it anyway. Priceless.

[inteller]

can you burn itunes to a daemon tools mount and then rip back out?