[Infowarrior] - If music DRM is dead, the RIAA expects its resurrection

[Richard Forno]

If music DRM is dead, the RIAA expects its resurrection

By Jacqui Cheng | Published: May 08, 2008 - 02:11PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080508-if-music-drm-is-dead-the-riaa-expects-its-resurrection.html

Despite widespread declarations of the death of DRM in music, the  
Recording Industry Association of America insists that it's far from  
dead. At the Digital Hollywood conference taking place in Los Angeles  
this week, the organization argued that DRM is still used in the large  
majority of music distribution methods. Not only that, but DRM is  
poised to make a comeback to make up for where it has fallen.

"(Recently) I made a list of the 22 ways to sell music and 20 of them  
still require DRM," RIAA technology unit head David Hughes said during  
a panel discussion, according to CNet. "Any form of subscription  
service or limited play-per-view or advertising offer still requires  
DRM. So DRM is not dead."

Hughes' statement comes just four months after the last of the Big  
Four music labels decided to ditch DRM for some sales. Sony BMG joined  
EMI, Universal, and Warner in selling DRM-free MP3 files through  
Amazon's MP3 service (in addition to a rather large handful of  
independent labels), making Amazon the only online destination that  
sells unprotected music from all of the majors. Other music stores  
offer some DRM-free selections too, like the iTunes Store, the Zune  
Marketplace, eMusic, and Amie Street, to name a few.

Still, it's true that DRM still exists in the music world. The  
majority of songs from the iTunes Store still utilize DRM, many stores  
continue to sell tracks with Windows-centric DRM, and practically all  
subscription services still use it. Other services, such as web-based  
music service Last.fm, offer free ad-supported streaming, but users  
are limited to listening over the web and cannot take the files with  
them offline. And, of course, subscription-based services use DRM to  
ensure that the downloaded music expires once users cancel their  
subscriptions.

Hughes believes that per-track purchases are going the way of the dodo  
in favor of these other models, and that's why DRM will have a  
resurgence. "I think there is going to be a shift," he said. "I think  
there will be a movement towards subscription services and they will  
eventually mean the return of DRM." Hughes did acknowledge that users  
would rather live in a world where DRM stayed out of their way by  
saying that as long as they get to use files how they want, users  
don't care about DRM.

The problem with DRM is that users can't use the files how they want,  
which is why they do care. And we're miles away from the kind of  
magical solution solution envisioned by the Hughes that would create  
the perfect, unnoticeable DRM scheme. Others on the panel realize  
this.  Digimarc Corp. director of business development Rajan Samtani  
pointed out that there are too many ways for the "kids" to get around  
DRM and that it's time to "throw in the towel."

Aside from incompatibility, there's another major danger with DRM:  
having your music licenses disappear on you one day. This most  
recently happened with MSN Music, which announced that users will need  
to either commit to their authorized computers for life or circumvent  
the DRM by burning the music to a CD and re-ripping.

The industry's recent willingness to drop DRM and embrace other,  
nontraditional models led us to believe that the music industry was  
finally "getting it." Given Hughes' comments, however, perhaps the Big  
Four labels and RIAA never will.