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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!
Apple DOES offer iTunes Plus. Yes, it is sold at a premium price. However, for those concerned about DRM, it at least affords an alternative that is higher quality and DRM free.
It will just make a drop in sales of 1 or 2%, almost not noticeable. If Apple feels like it can do without, good for them. Would they loose more profits if they ditched DRMs completely ? I doubt it and 1% is still 1%. I think there is another problem : a lot of the people willing to boycott are, IMHO, blue-chip consumers, those who helped Apple follow trends in the tech world. If Apple loses them, it may cost them more than a little drop of sales.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
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.
1) The iPhone is the biggest selling single phone on the market, hell they've a 1/3 of the whole market with one device
2) The iPod is the biggest selling digital music player by a mile
3) iTunes is one of the easiest to use ways of managing your digital music collection
So will the vast majority of people give any sort of hoot about DRM when all they can see is their ability to share the music between their PCs and their digital music player? No they will not.
All this will do is demonstrate how pointless the actual demonstration is, thus meaning that Apple will be less likely to be concerned.
For most people the question isn't DRM-free its "playable on my iPod".
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
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.
The average user is more than willing to pay more money for hobbled music because of user interface, ease of use, and marketing.
There is an escape from Apple's DRM: just burn tracks on music CD.
On other side, many companies really disregard the time. The time user has to spend on doing something silly and stupid. Apple was always good on removing the artificial barriers and negotiating compromise where it doesn't hurt users. (But it's not that Apple is clear on all DRM charges.)
From my personal experience, I would easily overpay for something what requires little of attention and just works. Though most of my friends prefer to spend time searching for better deal, spend time getting into the deal and then spend even more time trying to make it work in the end.
IMHO, good accessibility is also feature and I do not mind paying extra for it. Though you never find accessibility on official list of features.
Right now iTMS holds really little of advantage over other stores, so the point of RTFAs stands. Yet, now the time Apple invested into building user loyalty is simply paying back. iTMS competitors shoot themselves so many times in all the possible foots and they would need considerable time to gain the trust back.
P.S. And thanks to misleading **AA campaign many believe that Apple's DRM is norm of life. And that I believe is bigger problem.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Sounds like DefectiveByDesign.org is misinformed. DRM is pushed to Apple iTunes (and other online media Shops like Rhapsody) by the record labels e.t.c. Even if the boycott is successfull, unless if it hurts the record labels they will continue to push this policy to all online content. iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster only sell what they are authorized to sell and what is in the contract. By the way, i dont believe Apple makes a lot of money from iTunes, it is simply a means to help sell the iPod. Record labels make most of the money. Solution: Boycott the record labels
People don't care about DRM per se, they care about whether they can use what they buy any way they like.
In the case of music with DRM bought from the iTunes store: I can play it on my computer with no problems at all. I can burn it onto CDs without any problems at all. I can play it in my car (by copying it onto my iPod) without any problems at all. I can't give it away to friends to play on their computers (which would be illegal, which I might or might not care about, and I can give CDs with the music on them to friends, which is just as illegal, which again I might or might not care about), and I can't convert it to MP3 which would allow me to put it onto a cheap 4GB memory stick which can be played in many places, or onto a DVD which my DVD player can play.
Most computer users that I know would have no idea how to put _any_ music onto a memory stick or a DVD, so I don't think there is very much of a limitation at all. On the other hand, the music is easy to buy, and looking in other places is effort as well.
In the case of movie rentals, DRM might very much keep people from using a movie in the way the intend, but it's not in their way when they try to get what they paid for out of a movie (at least with the Apple store).
On the other hand, years ago I tried to buy some eBooks, which came with DRM. Paid for four books (but only a few Euros), had to download bloody Adobe eBook reader software, the software crashed during the download, and all in all I was able to read one of the four books I paid for. I don't dare thinking about what hoops I would have to jump through to make these books readable on my current computer. So in that case, DRM was most definitely in my way and kept me from giving them any more of my money for years. They now sell the same books in unprotected PDF files, which means I can read them on a Mac using Preview, and they will be usable forever.
So the summary: I am not going to boycott DRM if it is implemented well and I trust the company doing it. And if it is implemented badly, you don't need to ask me to boycott it.
Apple doesn't mandate the DRM in iTunes, the music labels do. Apple knows full well what's wrong with DRM and that is why Steve Jobs issued a public statement in early 2007 (BEFORE Amazon's music was released) to eliminate DRM in digital media. The music/movie labels are the ones pushing DRM because they don't understand (or care about) what their customers want, they just want to control all distribution as they were able to do in the good old days.
Here's a major difference between Apple's iTunes DRM and other companies:
it lets people do what they want with it.
No, not what YOU want to do with it, what the average iPod/Mac owner wants to do with it.
Most people who are buying songs through iTunes have an iPod or iPhone, many have a mac, and the songs and shows are designed to work just fine on both. They don't want to sync with anything else, so why would they care about the DRM?
Something that restricts you from putting music on your iPod, yes that's going to piss the users off, but something designed to integrate with it? Not so much.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo - H. G. Wells
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.
Well, it has, at least with me.
I got an AppleTV a couple of years ago, and I had a video iPod already. Of course, the first thing I did was buy a whole bunch of my favorite shows so that I could use the AppleTV kind of like a Tivo, sans commercials and at higher quality video.
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.
So nowadays, I buy all of my stuff on DVD, period, and I rip it to my computer. I put the discs away forever, and I can watch it on anything I want any time I want. If I get a new computer, I copy the files over, I'm done. No reauthorization, no fuss, no chance of losing my stuff or having to re-rip them. Don't get me wrong, I still love my AppleTV. I rent movies on it once a week or so, and I watch a lot of the stuff I rip on it. I just don't buy video media from Apple iTunes any more.
Apple has always been a master of ease-of-use. I just think it's a shame that they, along with other companies in whose vested interest it is to make things as easy for the consumer as possible, can't use their retail power to shed all of this silliness. The technical capability is there for any video or song that you buy from Apple or anyone else to be extremely easily portable and transferrable. If they made it so, would piracy go up? Sure, no doubt. But you know what else would go up? Sales. And isn't that really the goal?
The reason BitTorrent and other illegal means of acquiring video and music is so popular is because it fills a gap that Apple and other RIAA/MPAA-colluding companies never will be able to, the ability to let people watch what they want, where they want. I'm sure the "free" thing is a factor too, but really, for me, it's not. If Apple announced tomorrow that they were dropping DRM on all music and all video, they'd have a loyal customer for life, and I would spend gobs of money in their store. As it is, though, they're losing my business to stores like Amazon.com that sell all DRM-less music and physical DVDs.
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.
You can deauthorize all of your machines and then re-authorize the one's you actually use: About iTunes Store authorization and deauthorization
And it seems silly to boycott a company that provides the most easy to use DRM and is working to phase it out as fast as the labels will work with them: iTunes Store: iTunes Plus Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
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