Compromises: Apple's Music Store

First my personal prejudices: I love Apple's Music Store. I don't mind the DRM because it does allow me to burn a few audio CDRs to back up the music. I am getting really annoyed with people trying to circumvent iTunes DRM.

People who produce content own it. Period. I earn my living by authoring published books and writing proprietary software for customers. I also enjoy writing free web books and releasing major projects like KBtextmaster as open source. My choice in what to do with stuff that I create.

I don't like the music industry because they tend to screw over musicians, but the world is not a perfect place. Steve Jobs did a great job negotiating with the music industry to set up Apple's Music Store. I enjoy it and I am willing to follow the terms and conditions of use. People who don't like it should not try to spoil it for other people.

BTW, I am a huge fan of Lawrence Lessig (I was once the featured commoner on the Creative Commons web site, which was fun). He strikes such a reasonable balance in copyright issues. The free mix CD in Wired magazine was cool and fun.

Comments

  1. samantha11:16 PM

    Your view is simplistic. If I buy an album then I own the right to play it anywhere I want to and on any computer/player I want to. Apple DRM locks me into one player and computer/OS choices that run iTunes. This is a violation of my reasonable rights as the purchaser of the music.

    Steve Jobs himself considers DRM a nuisance in the way of a good user experience and maximal penetration and profits for artists and distributors.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mark Watson, author and consultant6:20 AM

    Hello Samantha,

    The blog entry that you replied to was over 3 years old - I have more or less switched over to Amazon's music store to by MP3s. That said, I would always take the time to burn audio CDs of stuff that I bought on iTunes music store, so getting M3 was possible, but a nuisance.

    ReplyDelete

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