What all the fuss over DRM !?!

So I had a conversation with a co-worker today about sharing music and it reminded me of the daddy over at Apple.

Steve Job’s earlier this month called for the world's largest record companies to start selling songs online without copy protection software (see the BBC if you’re interested).

If you are a consumer of movies, music or digital content in general you should care.

First up, what is DRM???

What is it?

• DRM stands for Digital Rights Management
  

• It’s a system that restricts how, when and where you can listen to music and soon will include movies

What’s all the fuss about?

• Consumers like you and me like to “do what we do” with our music
  

• The problem is today we all can make near perfect copies of music and videos, and distribute them over a broadband connection in a couple of minutes or over several hours
  

• Without restrictions on copying, content providers like the RIAA or studio houses say they could go out of business (yea right!)

Why should you care?

• There is no single DRM standard
  

• Apple has their own and Microsoft has their partners (see playforsure)
  

• If you purchase content on iTunes you can only play it on an iPod or a Mac computer. That sucks if you are like me and use a PC at work and a Mac at home (I miss my library!)
  

• Even worst yet, if you for some reason decided to buy a Zune there are time restrictions for play…say 3 days for a song or 24 hours for a downloaded movie
  

• None of these thing make for a desirable experience

What does it all mean?

• Once again our angelic leader at Apple comes off looking like the hero
  

• If he wins out, we get to freely swap music and movies
  

• If he doesn’t he comes off looking like the consumers knight in shining black sweater vest

Food for thought…sound off here…

RIAA sues AllofMP3 for $1.65 trillion

As orginally reported by the Washington Post one of my favorite music sites is being sued (tear drop) for some $1.65 trillion!!!

Among the plantiffs includes he major record labels Arista Records LLC, Warner Bros. Records Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and UMG Recordings Inc. As part of their claim, the labels are seeking $150,000 USD for each of the 11 million songs that were downloaded from June to October 2006 from the AllofMP3.com website.

I can't help but to think if I was a brand stewart of one of these record labels, there has to be a way to flip these loses into a profit. Don't see what good sueing a company like the Russian based Mediaservices will do except remind me not to buy anymore CD's

The digital space provide ample opportunity to morph risk into reward (Mentos and Eepie Bird) or raise the profile of some dying brands (Dove). I hope they got some smart people over there who are thinking positives ways consumers are using technology instead of hindering it.