The Pendulum Swings on Consumer DRM
by
Randy Mears
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is used in the consumer arena to protect the copyrights of digital content by attempting to disable re-distribution (copying) while Enterprise DRM (also known as E-DRM) is used to control access to digital corporate content. Consumer DRM is the focus of this news.
EMI, the world’s largest independent music company, announced its intent to sell DRM-free music files across its entire digital repertoire. Not surprisingly, Apple’s iTunes Store will be the first to market this DRM free content. This may be EMI’s response to a proposal that was recently proffered to the music industry by Steve Jobs, but I personally didn't expect anything to happen this soon. Since EMI is only one of the four companies to which Jobs made the proposal (the other three companies were Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music) consumer DRM’s ultimate destiny remains unknown, but EMI is the first major record company to take this bold and popular step.
The arguments on both sides of consumer DRM as it relates to the music industry have gone on for years, so this announcement represents a significant and potentially game-changing event. While EMI is only one company, its stance will matter. Even with just 10% of the US market, it is still one of the Big Four record companies. It is clear that the music business will carefully watch the impact of this strategy on EMI's bottom line but make no mistake, consumers and record companies alike should rejoice if DRM is the ultimate loser.
