DRM

I seem to be spending so much time trawling the net on Copyright related stuff that I think I'm rapidly running out of time to any real work..maybe I should try to be an actual journalist but anyway I digress.

I was searching Technorati for stuff related to the UK music industry, and came across this post on Peer Pressure (a blog attached to AllPeers-a "unique file-sharing application to be released in 2004.") and Matt makes a very good point, in fact a couple of good points. I'd like to think that Apple wanted a DRM-free iTMS and were forced into it by the content providers, and I certainly agree that if content was available without restriction people would pay for it, providing that they found some value to it. I certainly have no problem paying for music, providing I like it, and the only reason that I don't (and I hasten to add I don't generally use P2P to copy music) is that the amount of money that I am paying for a CD is not equivalent to the value I'm getting from the CD.

I also dislike the fact that I can pay for a CD and then not be able to do whatever I like with it, whether that is rip it on to my pc, burn a cd to play in work/car, stick in on my iPod and, probably most illegally, give a copy to a friend saying "listen to this". If I can do all of that legally for a reasonable cost, then for me a CD has value.

I'll even say that I'd be happy with a "micro-payment" system for it: someone gives me a copy of a song (or I download it) and i'm charged maybe 15p every time I listen to it up to the point where I have paid the "full price". This gives the artist a royalty for each listen, and if I don't like it, I've not spent a fortune but if it is something that I really like, I'm not paying for it for ever. Of course this requires some form of DRM, but it would be a much more customer friendly form and would not (hopefully) limit any organic (word of mouth etc) spread.