Saturday, September 03, 2005

Crippled inside: A User's Guide to DRM in Online Music

Ten or so years ago, talking to a guy who worked for the local organization that 'defends' the rights of companies that own the publishing rights to music and market the cds that fill record stores, I learned three things.
Firstly, he was keen to promote the idea that he was defending the rights of singers and songwriters.
Second, he was much less keen to highlight the fact that the driving force behind the significant effort to enforce payments came not from those self same singers and songwriters, but from the music publishers, music manufacturers and marketers (often different branches of the same media conglomerate).
Lastly, he took great pains to explain that when you buy a cd you are buying a physical asset but not the music thereupon. Even after having paid an arm and a leg for a cd, you still did not own the music on that cd.
That was then, this is now. Need a simple run-down on the pitfalls and consequences of 'buying' music online? Look no further: The Customer Is Always Wrong: A User's Guide to DRM in Online Music. Caveat emptor! Let the buyer beware!

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