Slashdot Mirror
Will People Really Boycott Apple Over DRM?
Ian Lamont writes "DefectiveByDesign.org is waging a battle against DRM with a 35-day campaign targeting various hardware and software products from Microsoft, Nintendo, and others. On day 11 it blasted iTunes for continuing to use DRM-encumbered music, games, TV shows, movies, audiobooks, and apps with DRM, while competitors are selling music without restrictions. DefectiveByDesign calls on readers to include 'iTunes gift cards and purchases in your boycott of all Apple products' to 'help drive change.' However, there's a big problem with this call to arms: most people simply don't care about iTunes DRM. Quoting: 'The average user is more than willing to pay more money for hobbled music because of user interface, ease of use, and marketing. ... Apple regularly features exclusive live sets from popular artists, while Amazon treats its digital media sales as one more commodity being sold.' What's your take on the DRM schemes used by Apple and other companies? Is a boycott called for, and can it be effective?"
It will never be effective. The average Joe coulden't tell you what DRM stood for let alone boycott it.
No
Is it their fault that the music companies are willing to let Amazon sell DRM-free music to have a bargaining chip against Apple when discussing pricing?
What about the huge numbers happily using iTunes and an iPod to playback their MP3 collection? You don't have to buy your media from the ITMS...
Most internet users can't tell the difference between firefox and IE, it's unlikely they'll understand what DRM even is. Those who do understand DRM, probably never bought from the itunes store in the first place.
MABASPLOOM!
Seriously. How many "boycotts" have people had against iTunes at this point. And didnt it just get announced a couple months ago that iTunes is now #1 in all music sales? Not for nothing but I hate DRM, I really do, and when I can avoid I do, which is why I dont by anything but indie music that comes as DRM free. But going up against iTunes is kinda a waste when ultimately its the studios behind the DRM, and they are now using it to leverage better royalty rates on music against Apple (thus despite having stores who have all DRM free music, Apple still has to put up with having DRM from some of the major players)
The only real way to get rid of DRM is to just STOP BUYING CRAP MUSIC. But then that was the only way to stop it years ago and you people still dont get it through your skull to stop supporting any artist on a major label.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I, for one consumer, already have. I don't buy Apple products because of the DRM. Creative Zen MP3 player, Dell, and Fujitsu laptops, and Samsung i760 cellphone. My ex uses a Mac Mini. My best friend sweears by his iPhone and a couple Macs. Nice machines! Apple looks like a good OS but this danged DRM is the showstopper.
Bah! Come on Apple, lighten up. You seem to think all yer customers are sneaks and thieves, like Sam's or Best Buy.
"The average user is more than willing to pay more money for hobbled music because of user interface, ease of use"
Why should it be surprising that people are willing to pay for ease of use? it can mean the difference between actually being able to use something and not being able to.
Most people can't use most of most software.
Pfft, who actually purchases music anyway??
"Apple regularly features exclusive live sets"
I think this sort of thing prevents the uptake of Free Software in general. People want to be part of an "in crowd", and seek ways to believe it's true (eg. Da Vinci code, fashion, nerd snobbishness, etc). People will pay for this feeling, and I reckon it was used to help prop up the monarchies (and now demonarchies*).
I mean, how "exclusive" is a live set on iTMS? Anyone can buy it, right? This is where marketing comes in. Grass-roots arts and software producers don't want to come across as "here's some scones that my mad-great-aunt made (they make great hearth-stones), all proceeds to the parish..."
*typo intended, exscuse the piss-take ;-)
DefectiveByDesign would have better luck picking on Microsoft or some of the game publishers. Apple has managed to find the sweet spot between user freedom and DRM. Yes, Apple still uses DRM but it doesn't encumber a majority of Apple iTMS users.
Let's run through Apple's DRM:
I hate DRM as much as the next /'er but the above "restrictions" are pretty darn loose. When iTMS and its uber-convenience is added into the equation, Apple's DRM becomes a minor annoyance. Point-Click-Purchase? One-click purchases? Recommendations based on previous purchases? It becomes pretty easy to overlook the little bit of DRM that is involved.
I'm not an Apple fanboy either:
[me@mydesktop ~]$ uname -a Linux my.rhel.desktop 2.6.18-92.1.18.el5 #1 SMP Wed Nov 5 09:00:19 EST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
They have a whole host of options for playing it back, and the iTunes ecosystem is very well suited for the average person. Half the TV that my wife and I watch, while not saying much since we don't watch much TV, is on our Apple TV. I've ripped a big chunk of our DVD collection to MPEG4 and put it into our iTunes library. If we want to take movies with us when we travel, we just sync up our iPhones and that's it.
There's also the fact that you can burn the music you download to CD. So what if you can't do that with movie downloads. They're overpriced enough as it is, and so you might as well buy the DVD media at the same price. That's also a problem that affects every online movie distributor.
What the FSF and EFF should do, however, is to prove that another approach could work in the marketplace. If the EFF wants to promote, for example, "voluntary collective licensing" - then - they should get the venture capital, start a business, sign up artists and show the RIAA and record companies that you can have a very successful business when you don't assume that your customers are criminals who are out to file share everything not locked down. The record labels are businesses, they care about profit, not some kind of geek utopia - and they listen to fiscal arguments first, not technical ones.
I'm confused. If 'boycotting' means simply not buying what you don't like from some place that doesn't supply what you wish, then I guess I've been boycotting certain retail outlets all my life. With minimal effort on my part.
Should I be starting websites of my own to tell people what I won't be buying? Cos that could get pretty time consuming and frankly I have better things to be doing. Obviously these people don't.
All iTunes media can be played through iTunes on Windows. Windows is not normally run on Apple hardware.
But why begin by attacking apple? go after the long poll in the tent.
As far a popularity is concerned, Apple -is- the long pole in the tent.
Spork.
P.S. Spork.
Acknowledging DRM is bad to the core, there are just economical and business factors that can't be overcome in a single step from DRM to DRM-free. iTunes is doing a good job bridging the gap, providing a fair comparison between tracks that are protected and tracks that are not. It's also getting around or minimizing MOST of the problems that DRM causes. iTunes right now is the most consumer-friendly form of DRM available.
It's unreasonable to assume in any debate that the other side is just going to toss up its arms and say I GIVE UP YOU WIN and concede the world. That's what this "defectivebydesign" group is trying to achieve, and it's never going to work that way.
iTunes is probably the best thing going for the anti-drm movement right now, and that I mean even above non-drm music. It's easing the music industry into free music at a pace it's willing to go. It's something that the consumer can tolerate, and something the industry can tolerate. Right now, drm-free isn't something the industry can tolerate, and drm-lockdown isn't something consumers will tolerate.
The consumers will never accept lockdown, but the industry eventually should accept fredom of format. Just need to give it some time in the middle with things like iTunes to make them warm up to it.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Way back in the Napster days, I told several people that my threshold for paying for downloaded songs was $1 per track. Dang if Apple didn't do just that. I've actually bought tracks off iTunes rather than find an old CD that I own and rip it myself...very similar to the way I used to use Napster. My opinion: iTunes is a good service, the price is right, and the DRM doesn't interfere with my particular use of the product.
Evil is the money of root.
I still have my AppleTV, but it didn't take long to exceed its capacity. So I started storing my television shows on my computer. A couple of computers (and iPods, for that matter) later, I've moved my stuff around so much and dropped and reauthorized stuff to the point where the shows I bought when I first got my AppleTV are, for all practical purposes, gone forever unless I want to re-buy them.
How does this happen? I thought that content purchased from the iTMS were tied to your account, which you can pretty much authorize to 5 computers at a time. You can deauth at any point, either from the computer itself, or from their website.
Unless you've switched accounts, I don't see how your content would be unplayable.
Can I throw it on my Linux based laptop and listen to it on the road? Can I stream it to my XBMC like any other audio file?
Yes you can, so what's the problem? How many times does it need to be pointed out that there's a pretty feckin simple way around the Fairplay DRM (if you even buy the DRM tracks from the standard iTMS).
That last part is exactly the point. This:
> the DRM doesn't interfere with my particular use
> of the product.
but it may only be a temporary reality. I've bought a few albums from iTunes, and all is fine as I own an iPod (well, two...but anyway...)
When I replaced my PowerBook with an iMac though, I ran into my first interesting situation. I now have two of a limit of five authorized computers playing my music.
Now, I still have my PowerBook so I can spark it up to deauthorize the computer if I want too, but that's still annoying. In 12 - 15 years, I have a real problem on my hands...
to add to this, I can't seem to find a way to deauthorize a computer remotely. What if I'd given my PowerBook to someone prior to doing this? I just hit one of my DRM limits through ignorance with no wrong doing.
Most users, I'd suggest, are unaware of this limitation at the moment and arguably they *should* be aware of it, but still...blurg...customers getting hosed through ignorance is always unpleasant.
Skot Nelson music is my saviour / i was maimed by rock and roll