BusinessWeek just ran an article that announced Sony BMG Music Entertainment's abandonment of Digital Rights Management (DRM). Apparently they are the last major record label to leave DRM behind and now plan to sell songs without the copyright protection software that is now viewed as being too restrictive for their customers that want to use music downloaded from the Internet.
Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Bertelsmann Music Group, will make at least part of its collection available without DRM. Of course this is move will serve a business purpose:
"In abandoning DRM on à la carte song purchases, the labels could create a raft of new, less restrictive ways of selling music over the Internet, such as through social networks like Facebook and News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. Partnerships with retailers such as Amazon could also help the music industry take a swipe at Apple (AAPL), which has come to dominate the legal download market through a one-size-fits-all pricing scheme record labels find restrictive."
I was also surprised to read that Sony BMG had essentially introduced a security vulnerability in customer's computers as a result of an effort to implement DRM:
"In 2005, Sony BMG incited a consumer boycott and was the target of lawsuits after it embedded CDs with a form of DRM that was surreptitiously copied to and buried in users' PCs (BusinessWeek.com, 11/29/05), leaving the machines vulnerable to viruses."
While I can understand the recording industry's intent with DRM, it sounded as if DRM was making it very difficult for paying customers to load onto a media player for their own use. They actually had to degrade the quality of music by first burning it to a CD before uploading it for play on the device of their choosing and that's just plain ridiculous.
The second half of the article discussed how this move will allow the major labels to loosen the stranglehold Apple has on the market:
"Because DRM tended to tie consumers to the store most compatible with their music device, the record labels unwittingly gave much of the power over music distribution to Apple, the manufacturer of the most popular digital music player, the iPod. Music industry executives say Apple has not wielded that power lightly. With control of an estimated 80% of the market for legally downloaded music, Apple pushed its preferred price of 99¢ per song over the opposition of several labels (BusinessWeek.com, 9/25/05), which preferred variable pricing that would allow some artists to sell at a premium."
Now, I wonder if Sony BMG's attitude will change when you rip music from CD's you legally own to load onto your media player of choice, because according to a recent Washington Post article; Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, once testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said. This seems to fly in the face of the stance from RIAA which claims on their website that there isn't an issue burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, so long as:
- The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own.
- The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal – to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.
I'll be watching for more news on the case described in the Washington Post article and make sure I don't get a nastygram from RIAA about the music I've ripped from my purchased CDs residing on my hard drive. I should clarify (in case they're already watching me) that I'm not running any type of file-sharing software and don't connect to any computers that do. There! I think I've covered my backside...
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