How Apple is changing DRM
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Last year, EMI began offering songs without it on iTunes. “The industry has finally been able to get some hard data about how removing DRM restrictions from legitimately purchased tracks affects piracy,” says Bill Rosenplatt, DRM specialist and president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies. “The statistics show that there’s no effect on piracy.”
No effect. The assertion is remarkable. If DRM does not in fact discourage piracy, then it is merely a nuisance for the user.
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Ironically, the music companies are now abandoning DRM because it worked too well. Apple wouldn’t license its version to rivals - so the best-selling iPod drove the iTunes store to its present position, where it is the third-largest music retailer in any form in the US. Rosenblatt says that record labels “have been desperate to find a viable competitor to Apple and iTunes”. Industry sources suggest that Apple’s iTunes store has more than 70% of the UK download market, and growing. “The record companies don’t like dealing with Apple, because Apple is in a position where it can dictate the economic terms and dictate the business models,” says Rosenblatt. “What’s going to draw people away from iTunes? One answer is to get rid of DRM.”