Print - In Web Manifesto, Apple's Jobs Calls for End to DRM

There are times when Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs seem to be well ahead of the curve, releasing products and services that easily trump anything the company's competition is doing. And then there are times when Apple is a follower, although the company tries, in such cases, to pretend that it's leading the way. What follows is an example of the latter.

Yesterday, Jobs posted on Apple's Web site an open letter (which was clearly aimed at the world's largest record companies) calling for an end to Digital Rights Management (DRM), the technologies that protect legally purchased digital music and videos from piracy. Jobs's plea comes after years of complaints from analysts, music fans, and an increasing number of industry executives, which have all noted that DRM restrictions have stymied online music sales. Of course, when someone with Jobs's clout makes a stand, it's interesting, even if we've heard these arguments before.

"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats," Jobs wrote in the open letter. "In such a world, any [digital media] 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 [sic], we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music."

Jobs did address--but immediately discount--two other alternatives for the future. First, the industry could continue on its current course, where different companies offer "'top to bottom' proprietary systems for selling, playing, and protecting music." (Currently, Apple, Microsoft, and RealNetworks are the only major players doing so.) In such a scenario, incompatibilities between systems prevents interoperability, so, for example, songs purchased from Apple's iTunes Store won't work on a portable player designed to work with Microsoft's DRM.

The second option is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technologies to other companies. Because Apple is the dominant player in the MP3 player market, I've been calling on the company to do just that for years, as have countless others. But Jobs downplayed this possibility, alleging that the success of DRM relies on secrecy, and if Apple's technologies were widely disseminated, those secrets could be revealed. (This argument is completely trounced by reality: Microsoft's more sophisticated DRM system has never been completely compromised because it can easily be renewed electronically.)

Jobs also used numbers to his advantage. He noted that iPod customers have purchased only 22 songs per iPod on average. That's about 2 billion songs overall, a huge number that Apple has proudly trumpeted in press releases and keynote addresses. It also represents the majority of music sold online.

For the purposes of this argument, however, Jobs presented those numbers a different way: When you factor in the number of songs an average iPod can hold (1000), only 3 percent of songs per iPod are protected by DRM. The rest, Jobs said, were copied from CDs. And that's where his most interesting argument occurs: Because 97 percent of music contained on iPods today was sold on unprotected audio CDs, the music industry itself is doing nothing to protect most of the music it sells. (Jobs conveniently doesn't mention that digital music sales have completely destroyed the CD single market, therefore, the majority of singles sold worldwide actually are protected by DRM.)

Microsoft responded to Jobs's pronouncement in a fashion that I feel is long overdue. Jason Reindorp, Microsoft's marketing director for Zune, told "The New York Times" that Jobs's public plea for unprotected music sales was "irresponsible, or at the very least naive." "It's like he's on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we're here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen," Reindorp said. "He's certainly a master of the obvious." RealNetworks' CEO Rob Glaser was equally nonplussed by Jobs's pronouncement, given that he made a similar public plea recently. "I gave a speech on this exact topic advocating this exact position two weeks ago," Glaser said.

Regardless of the timing, Apple will always claim that it led the way to unfettered music downloads, of course. And although the company knows that record companies will never bow to this kind of pressure, Apple can claim it's been looking out for the interests of consumers all along. If Apple were really looking out for consumer interests, I'd just reiterate a request I've been making for a long time now: Jobs, tear down this DRM wall. License FairPlay, seek a license to Microsoft's Windows Media technologies, and make all these products interoperate in the world as it is, even if it's not as perfect as the one you allegedly prefer.

Thoughts on Music

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

Again, I fail to see Jobs' "Call for the abolishment of DRM" that bdk so bonchily pointed out yesterday, and lotsa continues to try to prove. Its just a repeat of everything that many people have been saying for a long time..."DRM is bad...If they allowed us to sell music DRM free, we would." Nothing more...And I like Paul's use of the term Manifesto...it makes me think of the uni-bomber, who much like Jobs' had a god complex. (the g is in lower case on purpose here) --tayme

What you are argueing for is that every device on the market can play every form of DRM that someone dreams up for music. It just doesn't make anys sense. The cost of testing and compatibility would be huge. This kind of environment would be the worst possible for consumers, just look at PlaysForSure, the stuff just doesn't work all the time, no one wants that, they just want to buy music and have it work. The only sensible position to advocate as a consumer is DRM free. Real pirates will always break DRM. And Jobs is totally right about number of devices increasing complexity, look at DVDs, completely compromised, no way to fix it, to many devices and not all updatable in any way. Even if Option 2, license DRM would happen, there is no way Apple licenses Windows DRM (which one btw, Zune or PlaysForSure?), they don't need to. Apple might be forced to licencse FairPlay, and MS would be forced to license it. Napster and everyone else will take a license and sell AAC-Fairplay tracks either exclusively or side by side with WMA. Apple has by far the dominant position in this market, and no one needs WMA on iPods.

Apple wouldn't play WMA w/ DRM on iPod's. they told PortalPlayer to disable that option, even though the firmware is completely capable of it. the Sandisk e200 series PlaysForSure players use a very similar PortalPlayer firmware (albeit with a different UI) and they are allowing DRM'd WMA's. XP

"What you are argueing for is that every device on the market can play every form of DRM that someone dreams up for music." Exactly. Actually, Paul would like a Microsoft-centric world, but that's beside the point. "License FairPlay, seek a license to Microsoft's Windows Media technologies, and make all of these products interoperate in the world as it is, even if it's not as perfect as the one you allegedly prefer." You are a smarmy little bugger, aren't you? DRM is a mess. And it will always be compromised in one fashion or another. "Plays for Sure" was abandoned by Microsoft for the Zune BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK. PERIOD. That's why they went the proprietary route. The Jobs manifesto is absolutely correct. Whether it's DRM from Apple, Microsoft, Sony, or whomever--it's anti-consumer and it's time to put an end to this experiment.

"the [sic] Sandisk e200 series PlaysForSure players use a very similar PortalPlayer firmware (albeit with a different UI) and they are allowing DRM'd WMA's." Yeah, that's worked out real well for them and the dozen or so people that bought the device.

The fact that Paul posts stuff like this here and on his Nexus blog *way* after bdk first brought it up and we have argued about it makes me question his integrity. You just know that in a few months something is going to happen regarding this whole DRM tomfoolery and Paul is going to say something like: "I BROKE THE ORIGINAL NEWS OF THIS EXCLUSIVELY ON WININFO/ITPRO BACK IN FEBRUARY!!!!" C'mon Paul: For once give credit where credit is due. At least add something along the lines of "... as was discovered by a WinIT Pro regular."

"RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser is equally nonplussed by Jobs' pronouncement, given that he made a similar public plea recently. "I gave a speech on this exact topic advocating this exact position two weeks ago," he says." So why doesn't he welcome Jobs' voice to the choir? Oh, that's right...because Glaser is a whiny little baby who can't stand to see anyone else in the spotlight. Here's a clue for you, Mr. Glaser: If your products weren't such pieces of crap, maybe someone would pay attention to you.

"I got all the music I need from p2p." Congratulations, thief. Your momma must be so proud. Do you steal food from the grocery store, too?

losta, you're such a putz! ""Plays for Sure" was abandoned" in absolutely no way was it abandoned. that's like saying Apple abandoned the Mac by opening the iPod up to Windows users. Microsoft has, and will continue to invest money in their widely used DRM scheme for Windows Media technologies. to think otherwise is being as naive as Jobs. re: Sandisk Sansa: "Yeah, that's worked out real well for them" 2nd place in the flash-memory market is hardly a bad launch. even now, Sandisk has 2 out of the top 10 slots of top-selling flash-based MP3 players from the e series, and 2 from the m series, ALSO in the top 10. so, just like you say, "Yeah, that's worked out real well for them" - it did! just another hypocritical Mac user with nothing to do.... get a job, Mac user! XP

"So why doesn't he welcome Jobs' voice to the choir? Oh, that's right...because Glaser is a whiny little baby who can't stand to see anyone else in the spotlight." that's some pretty big spin you got there losta. you can spin it better than Tiesto on O'Reilly. keep worshiping Jobs, the evil son of Woz, while you're at it. XP

....meanwhile, in the shadows.... Jobs' own company, Disney, continues to infect their DVD's with computer-crippling DRM applications that install without the user's knowledge or consent. nice double-standard there Steve! XP

I still stand by the belief that writing letters doesn't do sh*t. Even the most peaceful protesters on the planet have to take some kind of action. For example: Gandhi had to resort to hunger strikes that could have cause a war in the event of his death in order to see any kind of action. It's quite simple really. Look back at the Daily update where Wally World is now selling online movies. The big studios didn't want to **** off Wal*Mart because they sell the more DVDs compared to anyone else. Let's imagine that, after two years, and a billion movies sold that Wal*Mart realizes that DRM is stupid because, let's say, you can't stream the movies to your MediaCenter enabled TV. Lets say that Wal*Mart now wants DRM removed from the downloadable movies it sells. ... and they pulled the plug on the online sales to make their point? Do you think the studios would listen? Damn right they would. Now lets look at the state of online music. Who sells the most music online? iTunes. Over BILLION songs sold. Steve Jobs proudly said so himself during the MacWorld keynote. Now he wants DRM removed. That's all fine and dandy but let me tell you, writing a whiny letter and sticking it on the Apple webiste is going to do nothing... NOTHING. The big four are going to read that and laugh. Why? Because iTunes is still selling music. And the Big Four can get upwards of 65% of each song sold. That's a lot of money. So why would they care if Jobs writes a letter? The answer is simple: They don't. One of two things has to happen: 1) Job pulls the plug on the iTunes music store in protest of DRM 2) Consumers boycott the iTunes music store in protest of Steve Jobs lack of protest. People who run big companies will only listen when the money stops flowing. THAT'S what it's going to take to make DRM disappear.

All that being said: All other online music retailers would have to follow suit.

stick, you'll never hear me say that i like using a Mac. also, here's another little point to be made: the DRM applications that are infecting hundreds of DVD's on the market are most, if not all Windows-only applications, INCLUDING those sold by Disney, the company that Steve Jobs has a huge share in. hmm....lets think about this now. isn't this a complete conflict of interest? is there a legal precidence against this? i smell a lawsuit coming on.... XP

"C'mon Paul: For once give credit where credit is due. At least add something along the lines of '... as was discovered by a WinIT Pro regular.'" Oh come on. Now you don't even know it was bdk's spam that actually alerted Paul about it. Several others, including Paul's good friend Dave Caulton had already commented on this before bdk spammed the site. How can you be so sure Paul got the news from bdk unless he actually told you he did? You're being childish now.

"stick, you'll never hear me say that i like using a Mac." By the same token, the bonches or lotsa or bdk would never say they like using a Windows PC.

shark: "How can you be so sure Paul got the news from bdk unless he actually told you he did? You're being childish now." Maybe I am being childish. I'm not so sure where he got his news from. I don't know. I find Paul's credibility to be waning of late. Maybe it's making me cranky.

Waethorn: "get a job, Mac user!" Bonch: ... ahhh! Pick any comment about how Windows users are ignorant. -shrug-

@lotsamystuff Wow, a momma joke. You have gotten pretty low. Maybe you should retire. And the fact that you made such link between DRM and a grocery store make me wonder if you are not the one stealing from grocery store. Because, you know, you can't think about stealing if you never did it before.

I think the reason people are upset by this letter is the tone of it. Jobs tends to take a quite condesending view on the whole matter. Sure everyone has been protesting DRM for years, but his tone sounds like this is all new. Aside from that, the buck passing is just shear irresponsibility. Yes, record labels want DRM, but just because they want it doesn't mean Apple is forced to facilitate it. Jobs is trying to come in to the party 5 minutes before ending and take credit for it. Record labels have known current DRM schemes are failing for years, and now he wants to scream foul? He knows what he's doing, Jobs is the G.W. Bush of IT. He's as polar as you can get, and he loves stirring the pot. Screw having any forthcomings or resolutions, if I can get everyone saying my name it's all the better. So fine. If Jobs wants to be taken seriously, and he thinks he knows what he's talking about; then here. His points arn't good enough, nor all inclusive. There are unmentioned, and comprimising alternatives that havn't been raised. and Jobs himself has no grounds to make a technical argument on the functionality of DRM, since he has no understanding of how DRM is implemented. Therefore his second point is nothing more than speculative rambling. --- If he is going to take a stand, take this first draft back and fix it. Any 8th grade English teacher will tell you it has too many political overtones, and the voice is too confrontational to have any informative basis. Otherwise, it is just whiney fud-mongering. Or again, he could do like sticknick said, Grow some balls and pull the plug on DRM-based filesharing w/ iTunes.

I think The Inquirer has a pretty good take on the letter, "DRM has been very good to Apple, but very bad for the end user. It squashed all competition that leads to interoperability, competitive pricing and killer apps. Instead, we get an iPod, take it or go elsewhere. It is not a bad device but it is closed. Back to the laughable change of heart about DRM, why now? Because Apple got its *** handed to it by Norway, and Germany and France are going to follow. This means Apple will have to license the DRM infection to others, and then it no longer has an exclusive. Competition frightens Apple mainly because on the open market, they get their teeth kicked in by capitalistic forces every time. The only way it exists is because it has a lock on the OS, and a lock on the customers. Last time it licensed the OS, it again got its teeth kicked in, it wasn't a question of there being a better product, it was that everyone was better. Steve backpedalled in a hurry. Now it is faced with the same scenario, it is being forced to open up and fight fair. At first, when it was only Norway, it was playing the "I will take my ball and go home" game just like any two bit bully. Now with Germany and France on board, it will have to license or lose all of Europe. Can you say "not an option?" So, what does it do? Takes the high road and fight fair? Heck no, it is trying to abolish all DRM so it can keep iTunes and the iPods closed. If there is DRM, it has to open it all up. If there is no DRM, it can keep a lot of the process closed. Why fight fair when you can change the battlefield and still fight dirty? The part that angers me is that Apple is trying to spin this as a crusading effort for the people instead of further lock in. It is the finest in a new wave of populist PR, it must have spent a lot of cash on this one."

"By the same token, the bonches or lotsa or bdk would never say they like using a Windows PC." I like using a Windows PC. It reminds me just how good my Mac is in comparison.

"Jobs himself has no grounds to make a technical argument on the functionality of DRM, since he has no understanding of how DRM is implemented." Well that's the stupidest thing I've read all day.

I spoke too soon. This is even dumber: "Because, you know, you can't think about stealing if you never did it before."

But wait...there's another contender! "Heck no, it is trying to abolish all DRM so it can keep iTunes and the iPods [sic} closed." How does dropping DRM keep iTunes and the iPod "closed"?

ALL: Look here, it boils down to this: would you rather Steve Jobs had not written the letter at all? At least now he's added his considerable voice to the camp of people that want DRM abolished. That's a LOT more than we had 2 days ago when that camp was made up of random bloggers and such. StickNick: Turning off iTunes until the big 4 comply is simply not the answer. That's cutting off your nose to spite your face. What WOULD be a good move is accepting the Indie labels that currently sell music DRM-Free on eMusic.com. They've all offered to put their music on iTunes without any DRM, but Apple has refused to date. I think it's time they said yes. You guys who want Steve to "get some balls" are just plain stupid. That's not how you effect change. That's how you effect meaningless confrontation that ends badly. And if you're so obsessed with "manning up" then perhaps you should pick up a gun and head to Iraq instead of posting on a computer forum. Will84: How does Fairplay lock iPod users into iTunes when each user has, on average, just two or three songs on their iPod from iTunes? That's $3 of invested music. You're trying to tell me that $3 is what's keeping millions of iPod users on iPods? That, sir, is retarded. Ask anyone who owns an iPod - EVEN PAUL - and they'll tell you why they bought it: it's awesome. It's better than anything else out there. It just works. Etc. NOT A SINGLE ONE will say, "well, Fairplay kinda forces me to buy them. I wish I could switch, but I don't wanna give up my $3 of music from iTunes!" Come on man, think. "I like using a Windows PC. It reminds me just how good my Mac is in comparison." Ditto.

Will84: HOW will abolishing all DRM keep the iPod closed? You'll be able to play anything on iPods. And you'll be able to download from iTunes and play that media on anything you want - from Zune to Zen players. HOW IS THAT SYSTEM CLOSED? Do you even read what you write before you post? Honestly, sometimes I think people here are bashing their heads into the table while they type.

"I like using a Windows PC. It reminds me just how good my Mac is in comparison." What a sad state of affairs. Maybe you're the kind of person who does drugs occassionally simply to remind himself of how good it is to be over the influence? I don't need to use Linux or OS X to remind myself of how good Vista is. Hey, but people are different. I'm just sayin'.

Waethorn: Perhaps you'll give Lotsa and I jobs in your store? We can set up a little table with some Macs in the back corner and convert all your PC customers. Heck, you could be the manager of a brand new Apple store within a few months pal! What do you say? Oh, just one requirement: Lotsa and I have to be allowed lots of free time to come here and refute stupid arguments.

Shark: Yes. Clearly I am addicted to Cocaine because I prefer Macs. Actually, I use my Mac to manage the Meth lab in my basement. And let me TELL you, iCal makes it so easy to coordinate schedules with the cartels in South America. Man, I don't know what I'd do without it. Ah, logic and reason, how I miss thee.

bdk, you should step away from "honey" and read a little bit more. Will84 was quoting an article from the Inquirer, not writing his own words. Anyway, this is just typical Steve Jobs PR. His wrangling reminds me of something that happened around me. Bergen County in NJ has blue laws that prohibit the sale of many types of goods, effectively shutting down the very profitable and extremely popular malls on Sunday. For years and years, the malls have supported anyone who was willing to put a question on the ballot asking to abolish the blue laws. Each year it was handily defeated. The last time they tried this, the biggest mall, owned by Westfield, decided to support the continuation of the blue laws. Of course it was handily defeated, and the blue laws are still in effect. So basically they saw the writing on the wall, and decided to be on the winning side. However, it is quite vain, since they, more than any other player, stands to lose the most to out of county malls. So it was nothing more than a huge facade. This is exactly what Stevie boy is doing. Because after Europe rids themselves of DRM, there will be a groundswell of support in the US to do the same. He doesn't actually want to do it, since it will make it that much harder for him to compete, but he'd rather be on the winning side, and make it sound like he has pioneered it. Of course, all of the Apple sheep in the MSM will bite, hailing Apple as being an "innovator" for doing something that is NOT anti-consumer.

"Ah, logic and reason, how I miss thee." Apparently you don't miss stupidity much considering that your iGod has given it to you in abundance. I was only making a comparison. I wasn't implying that you were running drug cartels. What you said: "Lotsa and I have to be allowed lots of free time to come here and refute stupid arguments." What you mean: "Lotsa and I have lots of free time to come here and argue over silly things."

"We can set up a little table with some Macs in the back corner and convert all your PC customers." Considering the amount of success you've had on this site, God bless you! If anyone does switch, it won't be because of you but inspite of you.

- Non-DRM'd WMA files can be played on an iPod via conversion to a supported, non-DRM'd format through the iTunes software. - DRM is evil. People will always circumvent it to use it unencumbered. - It's 2007. People should stop fearing the Internets by now.

"We can set up a little table with some Macs in the back corner and convert all your PC customers." nice try bdk. it never worked for the local Future Shop, Best Buy, and Staples store near me. whenever i walk into them during busy days, NOBODY is looking at Mac's. i even ask the sales clerks about it and they don't even know why head office had to waste valuable space. and then there's also the fact that the systems are more expensive, and software compatibility is in the toilet. people that shop at those places already know that the right kind of computer to buy doesn't have an Apple logo on it. "Perhaps you'll give Lotsa and I jobs in your store?" "Lotsa and I have to be allowed lots of free time to come here and refute stupid arguments." still looking for one eh? heh heh. sorry, but i don't hire smug a$$holes. does your mommy know your wasting her bandwidth? if i gave you a job selling Mac's, you WOULD have lots of free time, and don't worry about dealing with the dreaded customers (sic!) - they don't want to talk to you. if i payed you on commission, you'd be filing for bankruptcy at the end of the week. "Heck, you could be the manager of a brand new Apple store within a few months pal! What do you say?" hey, if I could make $100,000 per quarter to invest in being an Authorized Mac Reseller, i might consider it. after all, what is that? the profit that Apple makes from the sale of 5 MacPro's systems?! on second thought, if i had an extra $100,000 laying around, there are more important things to spend it on than silly computers that nobody wants with an equally silly Apple logo on them. XP

bdk: Why would I grab a gun and head to Iraq? I'm against the war. Anyways, my point was he has to do something more drastic that this letter for anyone to take him seriously. Signing the DRM free indies is a nice idea but .... ... come to think of it, my friends band has an album on iTunes. They are not on a major label. They self promote. I bet their tracks are DRM'd just like everyone else's. I'll have to ask him to make sure...

"He doesn't actually want to do it, since it will make it that much harder for him to compete" There it is, folks: Dumbest statement on this thread. What you don't understand is that Apple already has a winner on its hands with the iPod. "Competing" is a non-issue...they totally dominate, and DRM (or the lack of it) has nothing to do with that. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

"in absolutely no way was it abandoned." Waethorn: Seriously--get to some remedial English classes, won't you? I said, " 'Plays for Sure' was abandoned by Microsoft for the Zune." See those last three words? FOR THE ZUNE. The Zune doesn't use PlaysForSure. Microsoft abandoned it FOR THAT PRODUCT. I didn't say they abandoned it in general, but it IS kind of like Canada...it's cute, but no one pays attention to it any more.

losta, you're the one that needs remedial reading classes. actually, you need to graduate kindergarten first, so good luck with that! you should look up the word "abandon" in the dictionary. oh and you should get some glasses, because nobody cares what you think on here. XP

One definition of "abandon" is: "to give up; discontinue; withdraw from" So let's say Microsoft "gave up" on "Plays for Sure" for the Zune. Translation, "Waethorn": They abandoned it FOR THE ZUNE project. "losta, you're the one that needs remedial reading classes. actually, you need to graduate kindergarten first, so good luck with that!" Wow, your debating skills just get better and better, don't they?

let me spell it out for you since you don't even know what you're talking about. you can't abandon something (PlaysForSure) when it was never approached in the first place (for the Zune), and therefore PlaysForSure was NEVER abandoned. seriously, losta, you should go back and get your grade 10. i'm sure the American Public School System (sic!) would've taught you grammatical semantics by then. then again, you've got 10 more years of school to graduate before you get there. at best, the statement should read "Microsoft used a new DRM scheme for the Zune". XP

My guess is that 'Waethorn' is actually Bonch trying to make microsofties look bad. And judging from this thread it looks like he's really good at it.

"get a job, Mac user!" yeah, because unemployed people are the kind of people purchasing macs. get a clue, waethorn

"yeah, because unemployed people are the kind of people purchasing macs." HAH! I KNEW IT! ....and mommy and daddy are the ones flipping the bill. XP

"Waethorn" (aka PC-Bonch), don't you recognize sarcasm when you see it? It's like when your mother tells you, "Yes, dear, of course we're proud of you". ---- Let's try again to penetrate your thick skull. Take your toque off and listen: A) Microsoft had a DRM system called "Plays for Sure" B) Microsoft developed a new music player called "Zune", basically rebranding a player made by Toshiba called "Gigabeat" that used Microsoft DRM called "Plays for Sure". C) Microsoft considered, but abandoned "Plays For Sure" for the Zune player, because it wasn't reliable enough, and instead adopted the "closed system" approach favored by others such as Apple and Sony. ----- In other news (http://tinyurl.com/2su4tb): "A senior Yahoo chief has spoken out in favour of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' call for major labels to abandon digital rights technology (DRM). "Dave Goldberg, head of Yahoo Music, says that tracks sold through his service in MP3 format sell much faster than rights-protected tunes. "Silicon Valley Watcher reports that Goldberg believes DRM is confusing for consumers, also that the company has experimented by making music available free of DRM, and tracks sold in this way see more sales. "Goldberg is also heavily critical of the DRM system Microsoft licenses for a fee, saying it "doesn't work half the time". "The Yahoo boss believes that removing DRM would provide a boost to interoperability and widen the range of music services and devices available to consumers. "The Yahoo chief's thoughts were echoed by SanDisk founder and CEO Eli Harari, who wrote: "Proprietary systems aren’t acceptable to consumers. In recent months, there has been a rising chorus of complaints in Europe about the anti-competitive nature of closed formats that tie music purchased from one company to that company’s devices, and tie that company’s devices to its music service." --- Suck on that, "Waethorn". The head of Yahoo Music says Plays For Sure "doesn't work half the time". Go figure.

"Microsoft considered, but **abandoned** "Plays For Sure" for the Zune player" there's that word again. losta, you should really learn how to use it. you probably can't even give a proper example of irony either. "Proprietary systems aren’t acceptable to consumers. In recent months, there has been a rising chorus of complaints in Europe about the anti-competitive nature of closed formats that tie music purchased from one company to that company’s devices, and tie that company’s devices to its music service." this all, coming from the only licensed maker of a digital audio player that's compatible with Real's Rhapsody service. ya, that makes sense. "A senior Yahoo chief has spoken out in favour of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' call for major labels to abandon digital rights technology (DRM)." yet another article trying to credit Jobs for initiating it. if you actually read into it, you'd know that Goldberg already announced the same sentiment nearly a whole year earlier: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060224-6256.html during his presentation he even trashed Apple for not using a widely accepted DRM format (which means PlaysForSure) nor licensing out FairPlay. oh, and that Canadian record label exec they mentioned in the article? that was the head of Nettwerk that said that. he had also mentioned similar sentiments 4 years earlier regarding the legality of sharing music, while Napster was the dominant illegal P2P file-sharing system, Metallica was sueing users, and before bundled spyware was even a pipe-dream. XP