I was reading this article on the internets, Boing Boing: iPhone – the roach motel business model, about how the iTunes/iPod/iPhone combination will be a sinister trap for consumers.
There are some good points in the article. However, there’s one aspect of the argument that I’ve never understood. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about Apple’s DRM and how it’s monopolistic, oppressive, and stinks of sulfur and brimstone. But, as a consumer, I have no idea why.
- If I put my own music into iTunes (from a CD or audio file) there’s no DRM on it whatsoever.
- If I buy music from the iTunes store and burn it to an audio CD, there’s no DRM on it whatsoever. I can even reimport it into iTunes on another machine.
- If I want to transfer my music between computers using my iPod, I can just put it into a folder. It’s true, I can’t reverse sync directly from my iTunes library. But that seems like a minor inconvenience rather than a dystopian nightmare scenario.
So help me out here, what’s so bad about Apple’s DRM?
[tags]Apple, DRM, iTunes, iPod, iPhone[/tags]
I was so irked by the the tone of the article, and it’s inability to recognize the previous entrant’s arguments, that I had to write to you. This Chicken Little, “The sky is falling!” attitude about Apple’s method of DRM and their decision to implement it is so pathetic. It is brain-dead easy to work around it. There are even iPod reverse-sync applications readily available for download. I just can’t understand what all this crying is about. My god, haven’t you paid any attention to the draconian way in which the RIAA chases down little boys and girls like some just released pedophile? It is important that Apple and others like Apple attempt to pacify the monolithic recording industry as it slides down the cliff and into the ocean. Furthermore, how can a website that relishes the win of the hacker and thwarter of all things like DRM not step up and argue this point, but instead rely on someone like me to do it for them.
I agree with your points J.Love. I’m no expert on the subject, but I think that some of the arguments against Apple’s DRM stem from the fact that Fair Play is a closed system. I can see how this might have ramifications for the industry, and for developers. But as a consumer, I’m not sure why it’s bad for me. Especially given how easy it is to manage your files within Fair Play’s framework.