Heartland

This might be an interesting read.

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

As someone who doesn't like having his rights "managed", I just can't helped but respond to that article.

Steve Jobs wrote:some have called for Apple to “open� the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft

The offence of copying/redistributing music is not "theft" under UK or US law. "Theft" is a misnomer which the music industry have been actively encouraging.

Steve Jobs wrote:The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

Since when did a record company have the right to decide which of my music playing devices I should be able to play my legally purchased music on? OK, Jobs blames the big 4 record companies for stipulating this in the contract, and I can believe that. But I don't think that Apple would have complained about it too much.

Steve Jobs wrote:To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets.

He's quite right. And this theory, otherwise known as "security through obscurity", is widely acknowledged to be insecure.

Steve Jobs wrote:The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any 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.

And from this point onwards I'm in full agreement with him. I'm not sure how much I believe that it's all the fault of the record companies and nothing to do with Apple trying to lock people into using their technology - I'm sure when Apple first launched their service they imagined that much more than 3% of music on iPods would be encumbered with DRM. However, now that they've seen the reality they've now moved to the position Jobs outlines.

Tim O'Reilly said something quite interesting on the subject recently in this rather good article: "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy"