‘Drop DRM on music’, Steve Jobs’ “thoughts” are big news. Or are they? Not form the P2P perspective I don’t think. Initially I had the same fuzzy feelings as the folks at Gizmodo:
“By now, you’ve probably read Steve Jobs’s essay, “Thoughts on Music” and had the same warm, fuzzy reaction we did. We’re back to our senses (somewhat) and we’re here to cut through the afterglow and examine his treatise in detail, since every single word was undoubtedly carefully chosen.”
Having read that and other commentaries [1][2] I wonder if it’s not all politics and PR. Do you see Jobs freeing up any of Apple’s ‘property rights’ while calling on big media to drop DRM? Do you see any call for open DRM that is another widely discussed option?[3] Do you see any call to promote the benefits of the P2P infrastructure?
My feeling is that Jobs’ thoughts are still very private – that is private, proprietary, property not public peer participation.
p.s. Fortune’s Brent Schlender also brings iPhone and video content into the political equation.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/technology/07music.html?pagewanted=1&ref=technology
[2] http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=231
i am much more optimistic: of course steve jobs is a business man and has his own interests. still, if you read his letter, look at the way it is written/structured, how it ends, then it is absolutely clear to me that he wants to get rid of drm – whatever the reasons might be.
i actually do believe he never wanted drm, but that aside: does is matter…? if apple says it wants to kill drm (and i think that jobs did exactly that with his letter) let’s all take him by his words and support him! why not…?!
someone said that the beatles deal might have to do with it… i can imagine that as soon as the beatles are on itunes – without drm – and other indie labels too, the mainstream labels will (have to) follow. job must have good cards if he dares to attack the almighty recording industry in this kind of way…
there is business interest, sure. but can you imagine bill gates saying: “Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music … clearly the best alternative for consumers…”? jobs really means it. and i say it will happen.
Une traduction française de la lettre de Steve Jobs est maintenant disponible:
http://www.macplus.net/magplus/chronique-13726-steve-jobs-s-exprime-sur-les-drm
And here is the case from Macrovision that “DRM supporting open environments” is necessary besause:
“With such an enjoyable and revolutionary experience within our grasp, we should not minimize the role that DRM can and should play in enabling the transition to electronic content distribution. Without reasonable, consistent and transparent DRM we will only delay the availability of premium content in the home. As an industry, we should not let that happen.”
If only Fred Amoroso was talking about management of rights information rather that technical protection of content.
And here the “Translation From PR-Speak to English of Selected Portions of Macrovision CEO Fred Amoroso’s Response to Steve Jobs’s ‘Thoughts on Music’”:
http://daringfireball.net/2007/02/macrovision_translation
“DRM increases not decreases consumer value” > “Up is down. Black is white.”…
Too funny…