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Labels Push for a Unified DRM Standard

Posted by michael on from the one-drm-to-bind-them-all dept.

thejoelpatrol writes "Bad news for Apple fanatics but good news for all the crazy slashdotters who want an iPod but feel dirty using Apple's DRM: the labels are getting together and insisting that online stores standardize their DRM methods. Being the providers of the music, the labels clearly wield a lot of power, but so does Apple: without iTunes, the online music business is next to nothing. Will Apple give in? Not if they can help it -- they're on top of the world. Before anyone messes it up, AAC is an open format, while the Fairplay DRM standard is not."

2 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Very good by InternationalCow · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not at all. Do you honestly believe that the labels are doing this for your (the customer's) good, to enable you to choose the mediaplayer and format you want? Then you're truly naive. Labels are greedy, greedy and greedy, in that order. The only reason that they are banding together on DRM now is that they are afraid that they will lose control (=revenue) over their digital music offerings to Apple, Microsoft or some other digital content provider. Which would serve them right.

    --
    ----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
  2. Re:Already messed up by damiam · · Score: 5, Informative

    Open as in "well-documented".

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.