Saturday, August 11, 2007

NTY Business: replaying press releases?

"Jeff Leeds" wrote this for the NYT:
Universal Music Will Sell Songs Without Copy Protection - New York Times:

... the music will not be offered D.R.M.-free through Apple’s iTunes, the leading music service. The use of copy protection software has become a major bone of contention in the digital music business, where iTunes accounts for the vast majority of download sales. The record labels generally have required that retailers place electronic locks to limit copying of music files. But Apple’s proprietary D.R.M. does not work with most rivals’ devices or software — meaning that music sold by competing services cannot play on Apple’s popular iPod. Some record executives say they believe that the stalemate has capped the growth of digital music sales, which the industry is relying on more heavily as sales of plastic CDs slide...
Apple sells music with DRM and without DRM. Universal's refusal to sell through iTunes has no logical connection to Apple's DRM, though it may make business sense as a way to weaken Apple's dominant retail position and keep competitive channels open. A reasonably informed human being would have noticed that that Universal's press release made no sense, so "Jeff Leeds" must be an algorithm for repackaging press releases. (Either that or a very dim editor chopped some key sentences out of the article.)

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