View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/06/01/04/itunes.ipod.ecosystem
Wednesday, Jan 04, 2006 5:35pm

Apple licensing, DRM bad fo...

With the largest Apple/Mac-centric show approaching, one columnist believes that Mac faithful's undying devotion to Steve Jobs is bad for consumers. Technology Review's Brad King says that Jobs' deal with the entertainment industry and its DRM practices are bad for consumers, according to a recent column that talks about the restrictive iPod/iTunes ecosystem: "owever, that's not what really, really sticks in my craw. I reserve that (possibly irrational) anger for the iPod and iTunes, two music products that are so restrictive in their licensing and user set-ups that I have never been able to bring myself to download the software to purchase music through iTunes or pony up the cash to by an iPod." Despite Jobs' efforts to take on the music labels over pricing, King notes that the company has towed the music industry line in terms of licensing and digital rights management (DRM).

"That said, even that restrictive licensing doesn't ultimately get to me. Every company has the right to set up the terms of use (within reason), and that is the road Apple chose to go down. The problem is they've been so compliant with the entertainment industry -- foisting ridiculous digital rights management on consumers -- that they may very well be setting the table for the music and movie industries to expand their restrictive licensing to entirely new platforms."