Posted on February 7, 2007 - by jono
Nice one Steve
Credit where credit is due to Steve Jobs for his recent Open Letter. This is exactly the kind of discussion people in his position should be having to promote an open marketplace and freedom. His letter quite clearly states that “if the Big 4 music companies provide DRM-free songs, this will be a good thing” – I am impressed that he is taking this stance, particularly with their dominant market position and pre-existing relationships with the Big 4.
It also makes me chuckle. There seems to be a bit of this going on:
Five Years Ago…
Steve: Hi Big 4, we are creating this online music store and trendy little device to play the music on. We are a cool company, and admired by a generation of people with disposable income, would you like to be a part of it?
Big 4: Hmmm, sounds a bit dangerous…
6 months later…
Big 4: OK, we will be part of it, but we need you to make something called a DRM that will protect our precious music.
Steve: Of course, protecting music is essential…utterly essential. You wish is my iCommand.
5 years and 2 billion songs later…
Steve: Haha suckers! You should be using DRM free systems and we own the music player market!
Interesting about-turn. Kudos Steve. Want to come and speak at LUGRadio Live 2007? We will you a pint. 
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February 7, 2007
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More like a tactical move… the DRMs helped Apple sell it’s IPod but now some European’s court are asking Apple to remove them so they quickly shit the blame on the majors
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February 7, 2007
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s/shit/shift
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/wr_nm/apple_itunes_norway_dc
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February 7, 2007
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You can read it another way. Steve Jobs is explaining that, as long as there’s DRM, opening Apple DRM to competitors can’t happen, so governments should go yell at the record companies instead of at Apple. But he knows that the very-pro-IP EU is sympathetic to the copyright cabal and aren’t going to lean on the record companies to accept DRM. So the result is that action to force Apple to open up in Europe gets cut off and iTunes keeps its monopoly while everyone continues to “study the issue”.
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February 7, 2007
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Interesting indeed, and I mostly agree. There is just one thing in the article I have a problem with, which is the two paragraphs in the middle, from “Some have argued…”, to “…iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.”, in which he twists words to prove a point completely different from the one people have a problem with: even if iPod users aren’t locked to the iPod, iTunes Store users most certainly ARE locked to the iPod, even if that’s only 3% of iPod users. And since the article is about DRM and online music stores, it seems that 3% is the entire point.
He probably could have made his case just as effectively by leaving that part out.
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February 7, 2007
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@David
Yes, iTunes requires iPod, but this is only cause of DRM. He says:
“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.”
As it is now, other players should use Apple’s DRM – FairPlay, if they want to play music from iTunes. Problems with licensing FairPlay Steve described as a “Second alternative”:
“The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company’s players and music stores. On the surface, this seems like a good idea…”
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February 7, 2007
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If it arrives will people let the mp3 be the new solution ? I think Ogg coul have a place to play
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February 7, 2007
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Steve Jobs at LRL? I think you’d have to take care af Ade, first.
Could we give kilt-wearing maniacs a shoeing after that?
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February 7, 2007
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With regards to removing DRM from the songs they sell, it seems that Steve is saying “We would if we could, but we can’t, so we won’t,” and hoping that nobody calls his bluff on that one. But there are songs available on eMusic that are unencumbered… why are they still wrapped in Fairplay when bought from iTMS?
“We will you a pint.”
I wish I could will pints to people. It’d be cheaper than buying them…
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February 7, 2007
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Have emailed him on this. We’ll see if he replies, word has it he replies to email from gnu.org
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February 8, 2007
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hey hey, Did you see the guardian’s tech session on DRM today? google might be your friend if not…