Apple's Response to French DRM Law
As you may know,
France is close to passing a law which makes it legal to break DRM to ensure interoperability with other devices. Here's Apple's response:
If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers.
Of course, this is negative speculation on Apple's part. It's hard to see how legal music sales would decline simply because DRM can be removed from the files. Apple already has a built in circumvention in iTunes in the form of burning CDs which can be ripped back to MP3. There are also a number of programs for removing the DRM from tracks that already exist.
And of course, this is just like saying "if people can rip music from their CDs, they'll stop buying music". DRM has never been proven a hinderance to piracy. It's about controlling markets, not preventing piracy.
iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with "interoperable" music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy
Considering that when iPods were introduced, Apple built the product and brand on the ability of users to pull music from their CDs, this is a red herring. As Apple itself has said time and again, they don't make money off of the music, the iTunes music store is there to drive iPod sales. Apple is trying to come off here as a disinterested 3rd party arguing for the protection of rights holders, but it's clear that the closed iTunes/iPod ecosystem is something they want to protect if for nothing else than to assure the music industry that they are a safe online partner for music sales.
Posted by Joe Mullins at March 22, 2006 10:06 AM
