[Ecommerce] Steve Jobs Urges Music Labels To Drop Antipiracy Software

[Malini Aisola]

Steve Jobs Urges Music Labels To Drop Antipiracy Software
By Nick Wingfield and Ethan Smith
February 6, 2007

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117079215903499929.html?mod=3Dgooglenews_ws=
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Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs called on major music companies to stop
requiring Apple and other companies to sell songs over the Internet with
antipiracy software, calling the technology ineffective at deterring
illicit copying of music.

Such a move, if embraced by music companies, could eliminate one of the
biggest criticisms of Apple's current hold on the digital music market
-- that music sold over the Internet by most of Apple's rival doesn't
play on iPods, while songs from Apple's iTunes Store don't play on rival
hardware devices.

The message by Mr. Jobs, delivered Tuesday afternoon in an unusual
1,800-word essay posted on Apple's Web site titled "Thoughts on Music,"
said major music companies should abolish digital rights management, or
DRM, software that is designed to deter copying of music.

It's unclear whether the major music companies =96 EMI Group PLC, Sony
BMG, Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group Corp. --
will agree to drop DRM, a sentiment that has been gaining traction in
recent months among executives in the technology industry.

"Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others
distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it?" Mr.
Jobs asked in the essay. "The simplest answer is because DRMs haven't
worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy."

One reason DRM software doesn't work, Mr. Jobs said, is that the vast
majority of music sold by recording companies is on compact discs, which
generally contain no copy-protection software. "In 2006, under two
billion DRM-protected songs were sold world-wide by online stores, while
over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on
CDs by the music companies themselves," Mr. Jobs wrote.

He estimated that less than 3% of the music on the average iPod is
purchase from the iTunes Store and protected by DRM. Mr. Jobs said Apple
would embrace "in a heartbeat" a scenario in which songs purchased
without DRM software from any online music store would play on the iPod.


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Malini Aisola

malini.aisola@keionline.org

www.keionline.org


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