The Crier

Apple’s Digital Emancipation Proclamation

Digital Rights Management is a burden on public music, it’s time to fight back

Phil Dokas · Tech · Feb 12, 2007

It’s hard to ignore Steve Jobs. Over three decades, he’s founded a multi-billion dollar company in his parents’ garage, caused a paradigm shift in the computer industry with the Apple and the Macintosh, revolutionized digital music with the iPod and developed a legionary following among today’s youth along the way.

So was “Thoughts on Music,” Jobs’ nearly 2000-word essay calling for the abolition of Digital Rights Management, a self-serving stunt or a rallying cry to music revolutionaries?

The answer: It doesn’t matter.

Analysis of Jobs’s unprecedented pronouncement broke along two lines: “Hallelujah!” and “Typical Jobs, just trying to look like God’s gift to mankind”.

I’ll say it again: the RIAA is downright hostile toward its customers.

Really, there’s only one earthly entity that wants DRM to exist: the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Consumers don’t want this stuff. Not when it controls how many times you can play a song, what devices you can play it on and with whom you can share the song. Say what you will about how Apple and Microsoft (among many others) have benefited from selling DRM-encoded music, it’s obvious that consumers would buy more songs if they came as regular MP3s that could play anywhere at any time.

Let’s discuss the RIAA for a minute. They’re the guys who sue people for downloading music illegally. And they aren’t selective about it. You might remember Sarah Ward, the 66-year-old grandmother who supposedly downloaded Snoop Dogg. Or James Walls, who doesn’t own a computer. Or the droves of 12-year-olds and dead people.

With his essay, Jobs essentially challenged the RIAA to respond. And respond they did:

“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.”

Perfectly reasonable, right? Only until you realize that Jobs never made this offer. In fact, he openly discussed how impractical it would be:

“Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies.”

Earlier in the essay, he explained that, should Apple fail to plug holes in FairPlay, the RIAA would be free to cancel their iTunes contracts.

The RIAA response to such a rejection isn’t just PR fluff; it’s an act of douplespeak that would make Orwell proud. And by “proud” I mean “shudder.”

I’ll say it again: the RIAA is downright hostile toward its customers. They certainly don’t see you, me or Sarah Ward as anything more than plugs in a profit equation. For the sake of public music, we shouldn’t waste time fretting over whether Jobs’s essay was a publicity stunt, but instead take the opportunity and rally behind it.

This issue reaches beyond individual opinions about Apple, the iPod, iTunes, or the iTunes Store. It’s about expanding consumer freedom — something dangerously limited in today’s market.

Apple sells over 85% of all digital music and over 70% of all MP3 players (to the tune of 90 million in 6 years). Jobs himself owns 51% of the Walt Disney Corporation. Saying this guy has power in the media industry is putting it very lightly. His public condemnation of RIAA’s practices is laudable. This issue reaches beyond individual opinions about Apple, the iPod, iTunes, or the iTunes Store. It’s about expanding consumer freedom — something dangerously limited in today’s market.

Will DRM disappear tomorrow? Certainly not. And it won’t be gone a year from now. Toppling entrenched models like this takes time. But there’s a lot to feel hopeful about. For instance, EMI is one of the four biggest labels and they’ve always been forward thinking. They designed the progressive eMusic model. And last December, they launched a limited sale of MP3s through Yahoo Music to notable success. Shortly after Jobs’ essay was published, they announced that they’re considering widening this practice to other distribution channels. Predicting the future is a fool’s game, but the effects of a successful attempt at this are exhilarating to consider. It’s a shame some won’t even think of it.

For the rest of us, Jobs — with a little help from a friend named Lennon — put it best,

“Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store.”

Real progress in the world of digital music? Imagine that.