14 DAY TRIAL // Yep, it is the second big all-time hit from the legendary Beatles, only this time it's been made without their will or knowledge. The 15-year contract with Apple has expired and this triggered it all. Steve Jobs CEO at Apple Inc. has made declarations which shook the music industry and yes, they were related to the latest turmoils subject: the Digital Rights Management (DRM, shortly).
Once with Jobs' words released in an official article it looks like the life of the DRM system is drawing near to its end as "the 4 big" will loose the support that Apple provided them with in what iTunes and iPod were concerned. Steve Jobs has clearly expressed his intentions to "embrace this wholeheartedly" should the world community agree that the DRM system was to be cast away.
There are some issues discussed in his article... 3 ways of handling the problem, actually. One could be not changing anything, so the battle between the DRM supporting companies and the anti-DRM public would carry on as before. The major difference from "before" is the birth of the Merlin association, which is likely to become a force to be reckoned quite soon. Nevertheless, keeping the actual status quo does not make a proper choice.
Secondly, there is the option of actually licensing the FairPlay music securing software to other sellers; but that would mean that Apple cannot guarantee any further that the music licensed to it is safe, due to the number of other sellers on the market using the FairPlay. Even more, the possibility that the secrets of the FairPlay would eventually leak is another big problem that comes with this second solution. Building up a fast updated software response and instantly installing it on millions of computers, portable devices, jukeboxes and so on is technically impossible - because it simply is!
Third - and I, along with most people, think - the best solution is giving up the DRM for good. This way to potentially do things was already hailed by the public and it would technically mean that every online store could sell DRM-free music which would play on any device, PC or hand-held, on any OS and so on, creating again the free music market. While DRM appeared as an attempt to secure the media content and to stop music piracy, it nevertheless proved its futility as the copyright infringements still thrived and the result was everything but happy customers. It is quite understandable why the "big four" would rather keep the DRM alive in what the online sales are concerned. Yet the fun and ridicule bursts out as we think that the same companies sell millions of unprotected CDs throughout the world and whose content can easily and instantly be uploaded on the web for illegal purposes. So far, it is more than clear that DRM has not stopped music piracy and it's more likely that it will never do, so Jobs' declarations may become reality quite soon.
Even more, once the Beatles' Apple Corps has favored Steve Jobs with the Apple trademark after the 15-years agreement and now Apple is free to act like a music seller on the market, nothing could stop the company from actually selling DRM-free music not only on the specialized iTunes online service but also as pre-recorded music files on the successful iPod. Imagine the new horizon of possibilities opening this way: for example, the Rolling Stones Homage iPod edition, coming loaded with the latest Rolling Stones' album right out of the box, or the BB King Annyversary iPod featuring a "golden best of" tracklist right from the very start! Obviously the list could go on forever and the sky would be the limit... all for few cents more when an iPod is bought...
I am very confident that the DRM will be removed and the online music market will become truly free as it was before. Music piracy is a social and economical phenomenon which can't be stopped that easy, by simply selling proprietary files for proprietary devices - this has been already demonstrated. It remains to be seen how will the market evolve once the DRM has been banned; I am also quite confident that new security technologies will soon emerge, if not even to become obsolete and inefficient as the (hopefully) late DRM.
