Another stooge misses real DRM dilemma, takes pot-shot at Apple

Another day, another mindless shot across Apple's bow arguing against their use of DRM. This time around, it's coming from Brad King at Technology Review. Brad is upset about the popularity of the iTunes iPod combo from Apple, arguing that the dynamic duo is leaving the door wide open for the music and movie industries to tighten their grip around our digital content as much as they want. Brad then goes on to say that he doesn't mind all the DRM on the Microsoft/Windows side of the fence, since he has a tool belt full of DRM-cracking and DVD-burning apps that let him go on about his business. Part of me wonders if Brad just has a hard time dragging and dropping certain applications over from a disk image in OS X.

Seriously though: I am a fan of most of Apple's products and, wouldn't you know, I'm an iPod owner. However, I am neither an Apple fanboy nor a candidate for DRM evangelization, and I'm happy to stick it to Apple when it's well deserved. My problem with Brad's article is this: while Apple might be in the spotlight of digital content and DRM, it seems like Brad was partying when he should have been doing his homework, because Apple is merely the tip of the iceberg in the ocean of all things DRM. I'm not talking about WMP restrictions or the fact that subscription music services are about 10 times more locked down than the iTMS when it comes to cancelling your subscription. I'm talking about all the other new rules and regulations surrounding nearly every emerging digital content device - whether it's a white music player or not. A great example of the rest of this iceberg is a post I had on DownloadSquad back in August, about official documents detailing how Hollywood is now directly dictating the way next generation computer software and hardware will use encryption to protect content. Crazy, I know, and you only get three guesses as to who authored the document.

Apple isn't to blame for all this DRM silliness any more than TiVo or Napster are - the problem lies with the dinosaur that we call The Entertainment Industry. They are the gatekeeper to the (at present) big and popular music, TV shows and movies that most of us want, therefore: they hold all the keys. The fact that Apple was the first to step up to bat and hit a home run with all this iTMS stuff is meaningless - the problem lies with who controls all this content, and what we let them let us do with it.

[via MacNN]
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