The Truth About DRM And It's Effect on MP3 Downloading Online

This article details DRM (Digital Rights Management) and how it effects getting MP3 downloads online.

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The Truth About Digital Rights Management ...

MP3 files can be traded very easily via the Internet thus creating an enormous amount of free music online. Needless to say, the music industry is strongly opposed to unrestricted MP3 distribution because of fears of lost revenue.

Therefore, the music industry has sanctioned a form of Digital Rights Management to protect their interests. In the days before the CD, it was possible to copy records to tape but each subsequent generation would cause the audio signal to be degraded.

Record companies weren't overly concerned about losing revenue to this type of copying, because they felt that consumers would not accept the inferior quality of copies. Digital media changed all that. Exact copies can be made any number of times without degradation. Digital media is also much easier to distribute worldwide via the Internet.

How DRM Effects MP3 Downloading ...

As soon as Internet MP3 trading became widespread the music industry clamped down hard. They filed lawsuits against music distribution services like Napster and Kazaa and succeeded in prosecuting individuals who were caught sharing MP3 downloads online. The music industry wanted a system to prevent consumers from freely copying and trading music.

Several types of Digital Rights Management have been developed and at the present time, every online music store that operates in the United States uses some form of DRM. Consumers who buy songs from online music stores usually receive them in either WMA or AAC format. AAC is used for the Apple iPod, while WMA is used for most other types of MP3 players. DRM can be integrated into both of these formats.

A typical DRM scheme limits the number of times a song can be copied or burnt to CD. There may also be limits to how the songs are used on private networks - AAC songs can only be heard on five computers at one time. New Napster uses another approach - users can download and listen to any number of songs for a monthly fee, but those songs cannot be burnt to CD unless the user pays an extra fee. If a payment is missed, all of the songs on the computer are rendered inoperable.

Is DRM Good?

Many view DRM as unnecessarily restrictive. After all, if you buy a CD from a music store, you have the right to copy that CD, rip it to your computer and sell the original copy. If you buy a song from an Internet music store you do not have any of those rights. What's more, the online vendor can change the terms of sale at any time after the purchase. We have already seen this with Apple - they changed the CD burning rights from ten copies to seven, applied retroactively.

In effect, the music that you 'buy' from an online music store is not yours. Your right to use it can be taken away at any time because of a change in policy or because you missed a monthly payment. Plus, in spite of the supposed 'protection' that DRM offers to copyright holders, it can easily be circumvented. DRM songs which are burned to CDs have no restrictions - the CD can be used however the user wishes, including copying, ripping and converting to (non-restricted) MP3!

DRM Summary:

DRM is restrictive, unfair and ineffective. It punishes consumers who are willing to play by the rules and does not prevent the illegal distribution of MP3s.

Perhaps this 'punishment' is enough to drive consumers to find other free music download sources or file sharing programs. If this is the case, the music industry has shot itself in the foot.