Slashdot Mirror
EMI May Sell Entire Collection as DRM-less MP3s
BobbyJo writes "According to the Chicago Sun-Times, EMI has been pitching the possibility of selling its entire music collection to the public in MP3 form ... without Digital Rights Management protections. According to the article, several other major music companies have considered this same route, but none as far as EMI. The reasons, of course, have nothing to do with taking a moral stand; EMI wants to compete with Apple. 'The London-based EMI is believed to have held talks with a wide range of online retailers that compete with Apple's iTunes. Those competing retailers include RealNetworks Inc., eMusic.com, MusicNet Inc. and Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks. People familiar with the matter cautioned that EMI could still abandon the proposed strategy before implementing it. A decision about whether to keep pursuing the idea could come as soon as today.'"
No, actually, it was collapsing prices that ended widespread toll fraud.
When blue-boxing became obsolete, phreakers would hack into PBXs with out-dial capability, or they would hack into conference bridges with toll-free access. Toll fraud was alive and well into the mobile age when cell phones were being "cloned" to sell overseas calls on New York City street corners.
Now you can just Skype nanna back in the Olde Country. Toll fraud is like stealing pebbles off the beach.
So, toll fraud prevention technologies never prevented much toll fraud. Just like DRM is a waste of time and money.
Only a price collapse in digital media will make p2p swapping economically insignificant.
I wrote parts of this stuff