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EMI Says Its DRM Will Support The iPod
mbelly writes "Ars Technica has an article about EMI saying that its copy-protected discs will play nicely with the iPod. Problem is, nobody told Apple." From the article: "With the popularity of the iPod, being able to provide copy-protected discs with out-of-the-jewel-box support for Apple's digital music player has been something of a holy grail for the record industry. Macrovision, the company responsible for the copy protection mechanism used on a number of discs, made the claim last year that Apple was about to license FairPlay and that it would provide iPod during 4Q 2004. So far, Macrovision has failed to make good on its claim, and the record labels are left with angry customers who purchase albums only to discover they cannot play the music on their iPods."
Non-DRMed CD: I can rip it to MP3 - and possibly do something illegal, like give my friends copies or share the files somewhere.
DRMed CD: I can rip it to AAC, then burn a non-protected CD and burn that to MP3 - and then possibly do something illegal, etc etc etc.
If you really don't want people to rip your CD, use a DRM that makes it unrippable (and watch people come burn your offices down). Otherwise, you might as well just let them rip it to MP3, and they can buy whatever music player they want to boot. You're just putting one little step between them and MP3s anyhow.
(I know it doesn't say that they were planning to use Fairplay specifically, but from the description it sounds extremely similar - and would allow burning of the songs to blank CDs, which I'm assuming could then be reripped to MP3. Of course, it's all a moot point if Apple refuses, but it's silly for them to even pursue it.)
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Apple says differently over at Playlist.
EMI is really looking to irritate Steve Jobs, aren't they? Trying to negotiate through the press isn't going to endear them to Apple, I don't think.
1) It seems very unlikely Apple would support anyone else's DRM. FairPlay does what they want.
2) Apple doesn't pre-announce what they're working on.
3) Partners who divulge projects with Apple before they're announced can expect public humiliation from Steve Jobs. Remember ATI?
As far as "supporting" DRM-crippled pseudo-CDs, all Apple has to do is have iTunes ripping ignore everything except the audio tracks on the discs. These beasts ultimately have to have standard music tracks on them to work in music-only CD players. We've seen how successful special-format stuff like SACD and DVD music has been (not very). Even with better quality the penetration into the marketplace for players just isn't there.
I wonder if Apple's TPM on their Intel platform may have a use of keeping evil music companies from hacking up Mac OS X when you insert a CD? That'd be a sweet irony.