iTunes Announces Changes to Digital-Rights Management Policies
Apple Inc. has once again made a splash at the annual Macworld Expo trade show announcing that is has reached agreement with several major and independent record labels to distribute digital music from the iTunes store without copy protection software known as digital-rights management or DRM.
In addition to permitting new purchases of DRM-free music, Apple Inc. is allowing customers to "upgrade" their current music library to DRM-free copies for a premium. As an added bonus, DRM-free music purchases will be available from iTunes in high quality 256 kps encoding in contrast to competitors offering DRM-free purchases in mp3 format.
The announcement does, however, come with a trade-off: whereas iTunes customers had previously enjoyed flat-rate pricing ($0.99), variable pricing will now be introduced depending on song/artist popularity, date of release, etc.
DRM software, intended to inhibit illegal file sharing, also prevented iTunes customers from sharing purchased music among multiple devices and equipment thereby requiring additional music purchases for use on upgraded, replacement or alternate music devices. It remains to be seen whether this development is tied to the December 18, 2008 announcement by the Recording Industry Association of America to end the strategy of suing computer users engaging in file swapping and uploading.
Changes to DRM policies and enforcement practices in the United States will undoubtedly add further complications to the development and introduction of copyright reform legislation in Canada which has been the subject of ongoing negotiation and debate over the appropriate balance between the interests of artists, recording labels and the consuming public amidst tremendous technological advancements and their impact upon the conventional sales and distribution models of the entertainment industry.
This is a good move by Apple. Other online music retailers have been promoting their lack of DRM as an advantage over the Apple Music Store for a long time. Steve Jobs is record stating that he does like the concept of DRM, (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/) and Steve always finds a way to get what he wants.
I wonder if the general public will understand that the absence of DRM does not give them the right to share their DRM-free songs with friends. Just as the current Apple DRM ties a purchased song to a Music Store account, I'm betting that user information will still be encoded in the downloaded song in order to track the distribution of purchased songs. I don't believe the RIAA would agree the sale of DRM-free music otherwise.