DRM down for the count?

by Lee Simmons, February 26th, 2007, 7:00 am

Ladies and gentlemen, the gloves are off. In the blue corner, former Yahoo Music chief David Goldberg. And in the red corner, the perennial 800-pound gorilla, digital rights management (DRM).

Last week Goldberg and general manager Robert Roback resigned from the company following a few choice comments Goldberg made regarding DRM, the technology used by Yahoo Music and other online digital music retailers to control access to and usage of digital data. In short, Goldberg opined that DRM is an unnecessary restriction placed on users that should go the way of the Dodo bird.

“I’ve long advocated removing DRM on music because there is already a lot of music available without DRM, and it just makes things more complicated for the user,” he told SiliconValleyWatcher.

The DRM debate basically falls on two sides: Advocates argue that DRM protects copyright holders by preventing unlawful duplication of their work, while critics say that such restricted use of copyrighted material infringes on their Constitutionally guaranteed grant of exclusive commercial use. A smaller, yet no-less vocal third group contends that DRM inhibits competition.

DRM comes in many different forms, all accomplishing the same basic goal. The iTunes Store allows users to purchase tracks and burn them to CD or transfer them to an iPod an unlimited number of times. However, songs can only be played on five computers at once and tracks cannot be played on many non-Apple MP3 players. Napster charges its users more money each month to use their music on portable devices, and makes all downloaded tracks unplayable if a payment is missed (ouch!).

Goldberg’s point was that the technology places an unneeded burden on buyers, and that online music retailers could learn a thing or two by getting rid of it altogether. It worked for Yahoo Music – the seller actually saw increased sales when it sold unprotected tracks in a little experiment prior to Goldberg’s exit. Hmm, no DRM, better sales…no DRM, better sales. No matter what side of the debate you fall on, you can’t deny the connection.