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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Friday, May 28, 2004

FairPlay: Another Anticompetitive Use of DRM

Deep Links: "On a panel a few weeks ago, I asked the head lawyer for Apple's iTunes Music Store whether Apple would, if it could, drop the FairPlay DRM from tracks purchased at the Music Store. He said 'no.' I was puzzled, because I assumed that the DRM obligation was imposed by the major labels on a grudging Apple ... Fairplay is a great barrier to entry that keeps the iPod as the exclusive device for the Music Store. Competitors who dare to reverse engineer the protocols or otherwise support interoperability find themselves staring down the barrel of the DMCA. And, of course, Apple's FairPlay DRM is pathetic as a mechanism for 'protecting' copyright owners -- every copy of iTunes allows users to neutralize FairPlay by burning to CD and re-ripping to MP3. No wonder Eric Garland at Big Champagne tells us that every 'exclusive' iTunes track has been up on Kazaa within 2 minutes of release. At the same time, FairPlay is plenty good enough to frustrate legitimate users. It's rather cynical, isn't it? FairPlay is bad for everyone besides Apple. Useless to copyright owners, irritating to legit customers. So, when you think about it, Apple's warm embrace of DRM here is every bit as reprehensible as Lexmark's effort to use DRM to eliminate interoperable printer cartridges and Chamberlain's effort to use DRM against replacement garage door clickers."

Sorry, but this guy's an idiot. We can argue about whether Fairplay is a decent DRM solution (it isn't), but there's nothing inherently wrong with DRM, whether it comes from Microsoft, Apple, Real, or anyone else. DRM, like any other technology, can be abused, but the market will sort out the bad implementations. DRM does protect copyright holders, even if it isn't (and perhaps can't be) perfect.

[ Posted at 12:32 PM | Permalink ]