Refusal of DRM does not lead to chaos

    Webplanet has published a note by PC Mag chief editor Lance Ulanoff: "The lack of DRM leads to chaos." It is important to understand that mp3 does not mean free. Accordingly, the dispute mp3 vs. DRM is not a debate about various concepts, but just a debate about which format is better.

    It so happened that mp3 has become a de facto generally accepted standard that is supported by almost all modern music players, both software and hardware. A huge number of players can play exactly the mp3 format. As for DRM, the industry was unable to agree and establish a single format for “protected music”. This is the root of the problem.

    In principle, a successful music distribution model with DRM exists. Apple showed this by creating a closed but self-sustaining ecosystem of iPod + iTunes + FairPlay. FairPlay allows you to play purchased AAC tracks with DRM, play on 5 PCs with iTunes, copy to an unlimited number of iPods and burn to CD. Everything is fine and wonderful ... Until the user tries to play the purchased music, for example, on his phone or on another (not iPod) mp3 player.

    This is where criticism of Apple, FairPlay, and DRM in general begins. The user wants to be able to freely dispose of the purchased music and not be hostage to the selected platform. If the main players in the music industry agreed on uniform rules of the game and a single DRM format, then perhaps everything would have developed in a completely different way. This did not happen. CD sales were plummeting, and digital music sales were not growing due to leapfrog with DRM. In the end, the labels had only one way out - to recognize the mp3 format. Which actually happened.

    And what is generally bad about mp3? This may sound paradoxical, but the main disadvantage of mp3 is the limited ability to use it. As a conscientious user, for example, I cannot give my purchased album in mp3 to my friend. In the case of DRM, such schemes were possible. But this does not lead to chaos at all, as Lance writes. Yes, I can’t send mp3s, but instead I can send a link to last.fm, which now allows you to fully listen to songs online. It’s easier and faster to send a link than an album, which means that most users will do so.

    Refusal of DRM does not lead to chaos, but rather eliminates the DRM-th chaos.

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