Jobs Gets It (or at least pretends to)
The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music. — Steve Jobs
February 6th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Yeah, this one really surprised me. I mean, Apple is winning the DRM war by a mile. At this point, pretty much anyone who wants to get media onto a computer or peripheral device has to go through Apple. Content providers’ insistence on DRM has given Apple a tremendous competitive advantage.
So why is he saying this now? Is it just that he thinks it’s right? Is it that he’s tired of everyone complaining about Apple’s imposition of DRM on their media? Or is it the legislative pressure in Europe?
February 7th, 2007 at 6:56 am
It’s probably that he’s so confident the industry will never allow unprotected content he can put on the, “Damn the recording industry and their rules,” act and come out a hero in the public eye, leaving the recording cartels looking like baby killers.
Despite my cynical interpretation, he’s my hero of the week. About time someone of his stature had the balls to say it.