EU Commissioner Slams Music Lock-In

Nonu writes "EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva has come out against DRM lock-ins like Apple's iPod-iTunes combo. Kuneva said she believes the tie-in that keeps music bought from the iTunes Store from playing on MP3 players other than the iPod was unreasonable. '"Do you find it reasonable that a CD will play in all CD players, but an iTunes song will only play on an iPod?" asked Kuneva. "It doesn't [seem reasonable] to me. Something must change."' The EU is in the midst of an effort to harmonize its consumer protection laws, and along with the question of DRM tie-ins it is also looking at mandating cooling-off periods during which customers could 'return' downloaded music."

Comments

Burn The iTunes Tunes To CD and Rip Them Back

[NeverVotedBush]

iTunes is extremely convenient. If I want just a song off of an album, I'll pick it up from Apple. But I also burn all the songs to a CD and then rip them back at high quality into mp3's.

Yeah - I know there is a slight loss in quality from ripping directly from the CD but for the cost savings, I can deal. And by ripping at high bit rates, you don't get near as much of the artifacts.

If an album is good enough I'll buy it and rip that. But for a song or two, it's iTunes, burn, and rip. Works great.

Re:Has she read Steeve Jobs' essay on DRM?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Because if she has, she would know that Jobs himself opposes the DRM scheme.

Aaaah right, I've read Jobs' little blog - and he's it's entirely correct.

However. Why doesn't Jobs' allow the artists who want to sell DRM free music on itunes? There's DRM encumbered music on itunes that's available elsewhere in DRM free formats.

I find the disconnect between Steve Jobs essay & the reality of iTunes.... well, lets just say that perhaps interoperability pressure from the EU was a bigger motivation for Jobs to write that essay then a desire to help remove DRM from the marketplace.

I have no doubt that someone is going to reply to this post saying that consumer 'confusion' is what prevents Apple from having DRM on some music, but not on others. To those people, please read this link.

For the lazy, the link is about four Dylan songs (virtually indistinguishable via the ITMS interface to other songs). These songs have more restrictive DRM on them and cannot be burnt to CD at all. Apple didn't seem to mind confusing their customers in that case.

Re:DRM free music the only way forward.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

The same reason Apple is opposed to variable pricing: consistency. They don't want to clutter iTunes with complicated explanations of what you are and aren't allowed to do with each track of music.

Consistency?

You're kidding right? Please read about this experience of consistency in DRM in itunes.

First, when you attempt to burn the album (with the video-files, which are only distinguished from the audio-files by a small, obscure grey icon) to CD, the iTunes error message says only that the files "cannot be burned to an audio CD," which led Kim Cameron, an experienced computer user and IT executive, to conclude that the files were locked -- an error stating that these were video files would have been clearer.

If Apple were going for consistency and attempts to not confuse the customer, they failed utterly.

You appear to have replied to the wrong comment?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Or perhaps this is a pre-canned comment you keep ready to drop on someone who says something anti-ITMS?

Anyway, I'll reply to the bit that did seem to intersect my comment:

Summary: it is nowhere near as technically, legally, and procedurally as simple as people seem to think it is, and the fact Apple isn't doing it now doesn't mean Jobs' DRM statement was just PR fluff that they floated out because they "knew" they'd "never have to do it":

Artists have been asking for DRM free ITMS music for months. If Jobs was as concerned about DRM being imposed on him as his little blog makes out, don't you think Apple should lead by example and become the first label (let's face it, that's what they are now) to offer DRM free tunes.

Even an announcement stating they're going to offer DRM-free tunes as soon as technically feasible would be enough for me.

Without that, Jobs' calling on the rest of the music industry to drop DRM when he appears unwilling to drop it himself smacks of hypocrisy.

Apple talking the talk, not walking the walk again.

(PS, what did you think of my diary?).