Apple and EMI ditching DRM is good, but it's not good enough - Engadget In case you are not hip to the slang, DRM stands for digital rights management. It is a software format that limits the abilities of songs downloaded from internet audio providers (iTunes Music Store) to be copied. For years, this has seemed counterintuitive, because CD's can still be bought and copied just as easy as a file downloaded from iTunes, so why protect what is being downloaded from the internet when you don't protect what people buy off the shelf? It just doesn't make sense and proves that record labels are coming to grips with the fact that times have changed, and CD's will eventually die out for mainstream music. Especially Pop music. Fast forward to today, apple releases the news of the day claiming they have struck a deal with a major record label (EMI) stating they will sell audio file downloads for 1.29 a song with higher quality and no limitations on copying the file. Sounds like the end of DRM right? Unfortunately, the article above highlights some of the hidden maneuvers of the deal that aren't exactly true. Here's the summary. 1) the files are still in AAC format, that only apple's ipods and a handful of other apple sanctioned devices play. Had they been in mp3 format, the audio file standard, any mp3 player could play no matter if they were apple sanctioned or not. 2) the higher quality audio is only an upgrade from the crappy standard apple set with their initial downloads from iTunes. In reality, CD's have been at higher quality from the beginning. Apple is actually selling the real standard and claiming it as an "upgrade"....hardly. 3) they are still selling the audio files at less quality that are protected by DRM!!! They haven't removed the previous restrictions on lesser quality less expensive versions of the same songs. So the truth is, we are paying more for DRM-free music. Not exactly the end of DRM. More of a smoke and mirrors.

Powered by ScribeFire.