Labels Push for a Unified DRM Standard

Posted by michael on Friday October 8, 2004 @10:05PM 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."

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Re:How long is it... by Max+Romantschuk · 2004-10-08 22:40 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Once again: a monopoly by itself is not illegal; abusing one's position as a monopoly is.

And ironically, a patent is a legal means of acquiring a temporary monopoly on a specific piece of technology, after which the patent holder is free to (in practice, think software patents) abuse their legally aquired monopoly at will.

--
.: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/