DRM watch: music won’t budge, film takes a bashing
The DRM debate just isn't going away. Steve Jobs stoked things up by telling the music industry it should ditch digital rights altogether, now a surve
The DRM debate just isn’t going away. Steve Jobs stoked things up by telling the music industry it should ditch digital rights altogether, now a survey’s been released by Jupiter Research delving into the attitudes of the people he was directing his remarks at.So in true Family Fortunes style we can reveal that 54 per cent of music execs questioned think that current DRM systems are too restrictive and 62 per cent believe that dropping DRM, a la Jobs’ request, would boost the take-up of digital music.So what’s the catch? Well, despite all this, nearly all the major record labels are sticking to their DRM guns as the only way to protect their big investments. The one glimmer of hope comes from EMI, which is said to be considering the digital rights-free MP3 route.Meanwhile, over in film land, it’s been a bad week for HD DVD and Blu-ray. Hackers have gone and found the master key that unlocks the copy protection on each and every movie currently out – then published it on the web. Expect a swift upping of security on future releases, and an equal upping in efforts from those determined to crack it.Desperate to ditch DRM? Or do you back it to bust those dirty pirates? Spout your noise pipe off in our forums and argue your case.
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Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief