What’s the big deal about “DRM-free”?
All over the web and in real life, people are talking about DRM-free music and video, who’s selling it, and who isn’t.
(“DRM-free” has a mushy definition, but it basically refers to digital media files {e.g., mp3s} that don’t have copy-protection or purchase information indelibly encoded into them. For example, anything that you record yourself, on your own computer, will be DRM-free. In contrast, most songs purchased in the past from iTunes do have DRM, which ensure that only the purchaser can listen to them.)
But what I can’t figure out is, why do people want DRM-free so badly?
After all, in the case of iTunes’ DRM-encoded files, I find that as an owner, I have more than enough flexibility to excercise the rights that I’ve been licensed; such as viewing files on the various devices and computers I own, and making backups for myself. Here then, are my best guesses why people want DRM-free:
- So that they can enjoy their media on Linux. This is why I’d like DRM-free files, but I can’t imagine this accounts for most others.
- (In the case of iTunes) So that the media files can be viewed on media players besides iPods. But this strikes me as unlikely as well; there are other sources of music besides iTunes.
- (Abstracting #1 and #2 together) To decouple the media from the device required to view it. That’s a great goal, but is this what’s behind the wave of desire for DRM-free content?
- Something else that I’ve forgotten. Whoops! Waited too long to write this post.
So what is it? Can somebody drop me a line and let me know why they prefer DRM-free media
