Apple ( iTunes ) phasing out piracy protection ( DRM )

[Papa Deuce]

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/...able-Prices/story.xhtml?story_id=01000180000Q

Basics of the story... EMI has signed a deal with Apple to offer unprotected versions of songs for sale on iTunes. They cost $1.29 instead of 99 cents, but are encoded with only half the compression - which means they will sound better.

And, w/o protection, they can be played on non Apple devices.

 

[bicker]

They have to try something. Piracy is basically killing the industry. Before they give up completely, it seems that they're going to try trusting people again. I think that's going to backfire, and basically the days of the music recording industry, as we know it, are coming to the end. They're going to have to make their money some other way, like merchandising. Recording artists will have to become action figures and appear on lunchboxes again, to make the kind of money they're making today.

 

[fan_of_small_world]

Bicker, I completely agree that if the music industry cannot make money the "old fashioned" way, that they will find alternate means. My guess is that downloaded songs may start coming with advertising.

 

[bicker]

Gosh, I didn't think of that. I'm not sure it will make a big dent, though, because you know that someone will quickly put out a way to remove the advertisement.

 

[fan_of_small_world]

OK, I admit that I'm not a programmer, but I would imagine that the music industry could utilize a type of file attached to the music file that, while it can't be erased easily, expires after being heard once or twice, while leaving the music file intact. (Is that possible? I'm not sure, but I think it wouldn't be that hard to develop.)

For those of us who aren't good with computers, and I believe there are a lot of us, we'd probably just deal with listening to the ad until it expires rather than try to fool with installing a program to delete the ad.

Like I said, I'm no programmer, so these are just guesses.

 

[bicker]

OK, I admit that I'm not a programmer, but I would imagine that the music industry could utilize a type of file attached to the music file that, while it can't be erased easily, expires after being heard once or twice, while leaving the music file intact. (Is that possible? I'm not sure, but I think it wouldn't be that hard to develop.)

No, not hard: Impossible. The whole point of this change is to make it so folks can listen to these files wherever they want, so every device would have to be updated to accommodate what you're suggesting.