NYT Attacks DRM

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/business/yourmoney/14digi.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin' target='_blank'>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/business/yourmoney/14digi.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin</a><br /><br /></div><em>&quot;Even if you are ready to pledge a lifetime commitment to the iPod as your only brand of portable music player or to the iPhone as your only cellphone once it is released, you may find that FairPlay copy protection will, sooner or later, cause you grief. You are always going to have to buy Apple stuff. Forever and ever. Because your iTunes will not play on anyone else&rsquo;s hardware. Unlike Apple, Microsoft has been willing to license its copy-protection software to third-party hardware vendors. But copy protection is copy protection: a headache only for the law-abiding. Microsoft used to promote its PlaysForSure copy-protection standard, but there must have been some difficulty with the &ldquo;for sure&rdquo; because the company has dropped it in favor of an entirely new copy-protection standard for its new Zune player, which, incidentally, is incompatible with the old one.&quot;</em><br /><br /><img width="500" height="250" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2006/wey-20070116-icuffs.jpg" /><br /><br />Randall Stross at The New York Times has written a two-page article that attacks DRM - in particular, that of closed ecosystems such as the iPod/iPhone and Zune. Have a read through it and tell us whether you agree or disagree.

[NPrtmn4evr]

Well I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody that thinks DRMs are a good thing. They are only good for music company execs, and companies like Apple/Microsoft as it locks people to that device.

However, with iTunes it is unbelievably simple to rip the songs on to CD and then you are able to put that on any other device. This is what I've done with the songs on my wife's iPod that I wanted on my Zune, and it was not a long process by any stretch of the imagination.

It would be nice to have to avoid the step of burning a CD, but until DRMs are done away with, I can live with it.

[Alber1690]

That is the best artist's rendition of the Apple ecosystem I have ever seen. It should be billboard-ed every mile on freeways.

[Lofty]

Most iKids I know don't care about DRM. It works on their iPod, and their friends iPod. It works on their laptop, their desktop computer and they can burn it to a CD. Most are completely unaware of the restrictions and far too many just don't care.

I have a Yahoo Music subscription, I've never bought a track with DRM and never will. I'm ok with DRM on the subscription tracks, and if I choose to buy music I do so at eMusic.com, Zunior.com, or I just buy the CD.

Trends change quickly. Most people scoff at such an idea and say no one could ever challenge Apple. I think everyone is forgetting the short time ago when no one had heard of the iPod and everyone had a Walkman.

What's a boy to do when their iTunes won't work on the latest trend. Buy it all over again I guess.