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

The only real solution

[daveschroeder]

The solution isn't standardized DRM. It's no DRM. The music industry (and apparently government regulators) want you to believe the only practical solution is the former. The real solution is the latter, for all the reasons Jobs outlined, not the least of which is that DRM will NEVER stop piracy and ALWAYS be able to be defeated.

Re:Burn The iTunes Tunes To CD and Rip Them Back

[Viceroy Potatohead]

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.

Not half as convenient as allofmp3 was... If I wanted a song off an album, I'd pick it up from allofmp3. I never had to rip to CD and back, and I could chose my bit rate. Now that was convenient. I really don't see how Apple couldn't do the same thing. There's no way they have legal protection against enabling-copyright-infringement (or whatever) by requiring one to burn to cd and back. That's just a pointless inconvenience.

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

[jmv]

Has it ever occured to you that the statements made by Jobs about DRM were *precisely* made because of what the EU's doing. It's the old proven method to deal with "you shouldn't be doing X" by responding "I don't like it either, but Y is forcing me to do it". In this case, both the music companies and Apple want DRM, for very different reasons. The music industry wants you to buy your music 10 times, while Apple wants to make sure it won't work on anything other than an iPod.

Re:Burn The iTunes Tunes To CD and Rip Them Back

[Viceroy Potatohead]

Apparently you're thinking I'm saying things i didn't say. Kudos to you for not ACing it, BTW.

You made some assumptions there which I'm not even going to bother to actually specifically address, but I will enumerate:

You are assuming:

1. allofmp3 are Russian mob.
2. I "throw money" at Russian mobsters.
3. I "steal" music
4. I feel I am moral for "stealing" music
5. I am going on and on about "sketchy legal loopholes"
6. I am an experienced e-lawyer (sarcastically)
7. I know that the artist is not getting financial any benefit whatsoever
8. You think I might bother arguing that the RIAA just has to contact...
9. We both know that allofmp3 are/were skirting the law
10. I benefited from allofmp3
11. I am an asshat
12. The /. zeitgeist is close-minded
13. I have a problem with "big business" taking advantage of the GPL
14. Something about Apple and blogs
15. I feel big business exploits musicians
16. And I benefit from that

Truly lame... If you can't take a post which said, essentially, that iTunes is not as convenient as allofmp3 --and that I think it could offer the same level of service-- and turn it into your own projectionist ramble, then good luck with that. FWIW, other than being an asshat, there're only two other assumptions you made which have an element of truth in them, as far as I can see.

If you don't think allofmp3 offer[s/ed] a great service, that's your problem. I have no problem paying for music at a reasonable rate --hell, I have thousands albums on vinyl, countless tapes, and tons of CDs. I've paid for them all. But I know what music is worth to me. I'm virtually NEVER going to pay even $10 for an album anymore if I only want one or two or three tunes off of it. Since some time in 2002, the only places I've been getting new music have been free publicity offerings by bands/labels or allofmp3. Cut that off, and I'll just stop consuming. I can perform well enough to get my musical kicks, and I have a decent library of existing music. $1 a song is a ridiculously overinflated price, for digital delivery, by at least an order of magnitude. Am I ripping someone off @ $1 an album? Nope. Not remotely. If it's good, then I'm a fan (and a collector), if it isn't, then I'll delete it myself, and spread my opinion that it's garbage. I've spent more money on music in my life than food, so your silly assertions are garbage to me.

As Jello Biafra sang:

"tin-earred,
graph-paper brained
accountants
Instead of music fans
Call all the shots at giant record companies now
The lowest common denominator rules

"Forget honesty
Forget creativity
The dumbest buy the mostest
That's the name of the game

"But sales are slipping
And no one will say why
Could be they put out one too many lousy records"

Cheers [&Sorry for the long post].