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DRM on its way?
Universal has become the second major record label to start selling its music online without any copy protection. Until now, most music bought online for download has come wrapped in something called Digital Rights Mechanism (DRM), which essentially stops it being copied.
Problem is, it also generally stops it being used on more than one portable player, and sometimes on more than one PC in a home. It also limits iPod users to tracks bought at the iTunes store, and users of other music players to tracks bought at stores using the Windows DRM.
Now, after EMI said it would sell unprotected downloads through iTunes, Universal is following suit, with a trial that will last until January at Amazon and other American download sites.
The music industry has long been the driving force behind DRM, since the days of illegal downloads on the old Napster music-sharing service (the same name and brand is now used by a legal service). The labels panicked and insisted that music sold online should have these clamps.
What's changed? It's not that the industry has finally started listening to the customers it's been abusing for so long. What's really changed is that the music industry is in a dire position - bloated and money-grabbing, the major labels are haemorrhaging money, and they have realised that one way to start pushing up the amount of downloads being sold is to give people the freedom to do what they like. It's a desparate move by an industry in a corner.
What's next? Apple to buy one of the record labels? You never know.
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