Posts have this nasty tendency of accumulating, un-written, in my Wordpress queue as drafts. I had these two links sitting around for a long time: One link saying that DRM is here to stay and won’t affect user-generated content and the burgeoning independent media industries and the other saying that DRM hasn’t protected a thing and should be removed entirely.
Somewhat explosively, Steve Jobs posted an essay last week saying that he would sell songs from the iTunes music store without DRM if only the big bad RIAA would let him.
So.
I posted those two links from long, long ago to make a point: I never thought those links would have a shelf life. Commercial DRM, as far as music is concerned (since video DRM doesn’t seem to be going anywhere except to be hacked most egregiously), seems to be counting down to some zero hour; here’s hoping that I live to see no DRM is used at all. I think this is much more constructive than asking that a DRM system somehow, non-sensically, be opened-up so that everyone can lock down their users in the same way! (Man, Norway, you should’ve asked for the whole enchilada and just outlawed it entirely since even a majority of music execs don’t like DRM)
Apple has claimed that they would sell music without DRM (which would be a change of policy for them) and that seems like the beginnings of a sea change. Coupled with EMI’s recent announcement to stop using DRM on its tracks I think this is a very exciting time.
There are a ton of good analyses of the tides in this debate, notably at DaringFireball… Gruber does a great job laying out the currents (to over-extend that analogy).
Here are more links on the subject from Electronista, the inestimable Mr. Doctorow, Cult of Mac, the Associated Press and some more Daring Fireball.