Beware geeks bearing gifts: (l-r) Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI, Damon Albarn and Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple
Good old Steve Jobs. Yesterday he managed to sound like a champion of consumer choice when he and Eric Nicoli of EMI stood up and said "hey guys, you can buy our music digital rights management-free through the iTunes store!"
On the face of it, this is fantastic news. Apple's boss, who recently blogged that he thought DRM was a failed technology, and one of the biggest music publishers in the galaxy, have decided to drop the technology that stops you copying a track between computers, MP3 players and your mates. You can burn a track to a million CDs, you can upload it via torrents to the interweb and generally make free with it.
Not that people weren't doing all that stuff already: most DRM technology is laughably weak. It only thwarts the technologically illiterate who don't have the know-how to get around it and didn't stop the pirates from sharing left, right and centre.
But hang on a minute. There's a catch. First, you'll have to pay more for the privilege of having an unencumbered music track - 20p more. This makes me wince a bit, and doubtless it will make European competition commissioners wince a bit, too, as they're already probing the price iTunes charges punters in various corners of Europe.
However, there's another really straightforward catch too, which most of the coverage missed yesterday in its slavish praising of Jobs' move. iTunes sells tracks in the AAC format - which plays on only a very few devices, including (guess what) the iPod. AACs will play on some phones and the Zune, but not on most MP3 players. Not quite so benevolent, eh, Steve?
