Well there was another round of vindication recently as Yahoo! Music Store decided to close up shop. All of their music was sold with Digital Rights Management (DRM) on them which means that now any track purchased on that store is locked to whatever computer they are on right now. Yahoo! has said that they are shutting down their authorization servers so if you have any tracks purchased from there you won’t be able to authorize them on a new computer.
Some time ago I was blasted for saying that Apple might close the ITMS. The detractors seemed to think I was saying that Apple might go out of business. But my point was that a company such as Apple (or Yahoo! or Microsoft) might decide to deprecate their online music store and then all DRM’ed tracks would be useless.
This is just one more reason why DRM is bad and hurts consumers. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say that DRM hurts sales. Here’s my take.
This is my Standard Operating Procedure for Netflix movies. When a DVD arrives, if I get the chance to watch it, then I do. However, if some time goes by and I don’t get a chance to watch the movie, then I rip the DVD to an MP4 and place it in iTunes (and, thus, my AppleTV).
Sure, this is illegal, but I never make any ripped tracks available to anyone else. They are solely for my use.
Then, once I get a chance to watch the movie on my AppleTV, one of two things happens. Either I like the movie enough to want to own my own copy, or else I won’t. If I don’t like it, then there’s no need to keep the ripped movie and I delete it.
If, however, I like the movie enough to want to own my own copy, then I purchase the DVD. After all, I believe in patronizing the producers of good content in order to help them create more good content.
But here’s the rub. If the movie won’t rip, then I will never purchase the DVD no matter how much I enjoyed the movie. This is because I want to enjoy the instant gratification that I can get by simply playing a movie I like/own/want to see on my AppleTV. If the DVD won’t rip (and lately, more and more seem to fit that category), then I don’t want to own it.
So, in the end, the DRM causes a reduction in sales of at least one unit: mine. And I would wager there are many more out there that feel as I do. I only want to own movies that I can rip onto my AppleTV. Netflix helps me weed out the ones that won’t rip and so I don’t buy them. It’s great because I get to try-before-I-buy. Nothng aggravates me more than purchasing a DVD only to find that I can’t put it into a format that I want to watch when and where I want, as well as how I want. I feel cheated.
And I’ll tell you what. If iTunes made more movies available for rent (why aren’y they ALL available for rent, anyway?) and then removed the DRM from purchased videos, I would drop Netflix like a bad habit and get everything from iTunes.
As well, there are a few more things that iTunes could do to enhance the user experience. How about having placeholders for yet-to-be-released movies. They could house the trailers and allow the users to put the movie on a “wish list” for later purchase and/or rental. (Incidentally, the last update of the AppleTV firmware added a “wish list” feature, so that much is already done). After all, Netflix will allow users to place movies that are not yet out on DVD in a queue that will then plop them onto the users queue once they become available.
End of Rant.
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To Their (Bad) Credit
Michael:
You couldn’t be more wrong, even if the iTunes store happen to close (fat chance) my music will still play, besides if I want to tranfer it to another computer, I just burn a cd. yahoo an other services suck because they don’t sell you the track, they rent all the tracks you want. Besides, DRM doesn’t exist because of apple, it exist because record companies who want every greedy penny the can get. DRM is not the best but at least it works on iTunes
Posted August 25th, 2008 at 10:38 am Michael Swanberg Says:
I think you’re taking the narrow view. As long as you stay within a certain framework, DRM will “work”.
It’s when you try to step outside that framework that things break down. Like if you try to play iTunes files in WMP. Or Zune Marketplace files on iTunes.
The so-called “analog hole” exists for most things audio. Yes, you can burn CDs and re-rip them, but there’s a quality hit you take with that process that some people aren’t willing to go through. They want the quality they paid for, not somewhat less than what they paid for.
As well, you completely left out video. Currently, there is no “analog hole” for iTunes video. Anything you’ve purchased on iTunes will be locked to the computer they’re on if Apple decides to go the same route as the Yahoo! Music Store.
And correct me if I am wrong, but few people keep their computers beyond a handful of years. So, imagine something you’ve purchased “for life” that only lasts a handful of years. Imagine if you purchased some DVDs that self-destruct as soon as you buy a new DVD player.
The real issue here is cost. If the videos and songs were dirt cheap, far fewer people would complain, I would wager.
Finally, I am curious about your “fat chance” phrase. Do you know something that we don’t?
The truth of the matter is that we really don’t know what the future holds. The RIAA and MPAA could suddenly decide that Apple’s FairPlay isn’t stict enough (AACS is a prime example of how stringent the **AAs think things should be) and impose far stricter controls. This could lead Apple to realize that they are losing money with each purchase on the ITMS and then it would be silly to keep it open. The Stockholders wouldn’t have it any other way.
So, unless you know something we don’t, YOU couldn’t be more wrong. And if you DO know something we don’t, please… share with the class.
-Mike
Posted August 25th, 2008 at 10:56 am
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