Copyleft: the magazine

In the world of digital music, it appears that hell has just frozen over. Right on the heels of the recent announcement by Universal Music that it would offer much of its catalog without digital rights management for the next few months, Wal-Mart (of all places) began offering DRM-free tracks by the music giant and fellow major label EMI for and iTunes beating 94 cents a song. Yes, you read that correctly. The worlds largest retailer has, in one price dropping instant, changed the music buying landscape to one where DRM-free music is both affordable and readily available. Not only are DRM-free tracks now widely for purchase without a subscription, but they are also cheaper than the industry standard 99 cents per song. Oh, and just for the record, for the last three days, the top downloaded song of the week at Wal-Mart was DRM-free “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie for $0.94. If we weren’t appalled by many of Wal-Mart’s other social or business practices, we’d be right there with the rest of America. Instead, we’re holding out to see what Amazon.com’s music store has to offer…

(via Reuters and Wal-Mart)

Universal Music has committed trying out DRM-free music sales through January 2008 at such disparate music stores as Amazon.com, RealNetworks, BestBuy.com, Passalong Networks, Google, and Wal-Mart’s online music service. Additionally, Universal will be selling DRM-free tracks on its individual artist and label sites. Notice a name missing from that list? Yep, Universal gave a metaphorical finger to Apple’s iTunes, claiming that they don’t want to be held back by Apple’s iPod-centric site.

This is spectacular news for those that have long advocated abandoning digital rights management and moving toward a more reasonable music market. However, Copyleft: the magazine is only cautiously optimistic, as the success of Universal’s experiment will depend on how well it does during the crucial holiday season (it’s no coincidence that Universal has only committed to its experiment until January). It’s too early to say for sure, but this could be the beginning of a major shift in how we get music to a freer, fairer system.

(via the New York Times and Universal Music)

Finally bowing to the inevitable, NBC has decided to freely “license” its coverage of the presidential debates for non-commercial use of coverage from this past week’s AFL-CIO Forum. The rules, according to network, go something like this: as long as you credit MSNBC and don’t show any clips of NBC personalities, you have NBC’s blessing to republish clips of the debates on non-commercial websites. NBC even made a special exemption for us blogger types, officially declaring, “The inclusion of text or search ads such as Google Ad Sense, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter, or similar services, shall not be considered a Commercial Use.” How sweet, given that most journalism scholars (and nearly every blogger on the planet) would argue that the < a href="index.php?s=fair+use">fair use principle means that we, as journalists, could use, comment on and republish clips anyway withouth NBC’s go ahead. But, as with CNN and ABC’s announcements, this is a good sign that NBC is willing to accept that all journalists have as much right to report on the debates as it does.

(via Ars Technica and MSNBC)

Ars Technica has written a couple of scathing articles over the last week on SoundExchange’s attempts to force digital rights management on small Internet radio broadcasters in exchange for capping the exorbitant royalty fees the Copyright Royalty Board has ordered them to pay over the next three years. This is certainly a move the music industry would love, as it would help eliminate the ability for many listeners to rip music from the audio streams. Of course, the old fashioned way of exercising one’s rights under the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, a simple male-to-male audio cable from one’s headphone port to the mic port, still sounds like a viable option.

The basic principle of what SoundExchange is allegedly trying to do would set a dangerous precedent. The music industry has not been able to force the government to mandate DRM for Internet radio, so instead it has turned to “leveraging” royalty fees that, if enacted, would put most small operators out of business. That was the point of the Day of Silence in the first place. However, it seems clear that the music industry is desperate to find some way of regaining control of its product (which is, we might like to add, not technically owned by anyone as it is part of culture) and will destroy the only very medium that could save it from its own failed business model just to prove that it is right.

(from Ars Technica)

Microsoft is not going to be very happy about this one. Ars Technica and Endgadget are reporting this afternoon that a member of the Doom9 forums has posted a new fix for FairUse4WM that breaks Microsoft’s DRM for Vista and Zune. Ars has tested the fix and it looks like it is legit. Interestingly, the author of the new fix is going by the name “Divine Tao” which, Ars Technica’s Ken Fisher rightly notes is an anagram for “Viodentia”, the original author of the Microsoft DRM cracking FairUse4WM program (also an anagram for “deviation” and “di neovita”, if you really want to go there). However, for the moment, it looks like all you kids have a new means of liberating your music files from that pesky DRM. That is, until Microsoft puts out a fix and starts trying to sue people based solely on their user names again (which, we might point out, isn’t working too well for the RIAA).

(from Ars Technica and Doom 9)

The latest music seller to take up the DRM-free challenge appears to be HMV, the venerable UK music seller that also happens to be the parent company of the extremely successful Waterstone’s bookstores. HMV has declared that by September 2007, it will carry 1 million+ of EMI’s DRM-free tracks, as well as the obligatory indie labels. But the big story here is price. HMV is planning on charging a measly 79p (that’s around 99 cents on this side of the pond). It’s also 20p less than iTunes DRM-free tracks. We hope you’re paying attention, Amazon.com, as this is exactly the type of strategy that could help you regain your place in the top three music sellers in the United States (after having been bumped by iTunes).

(via Digital Lifestyles)

It has been a busy week or so since the launch of iPhone, with apparently every media outlet, corporation, non-profit organization, hacker, nerd and average schmuck on the planet clambering to say something about the device. Coverage has definitely been mixed, particularly in the open source and fair use communities. Some, like the Free Software Foundation and their militant Apple-hating wing Defective By Design (we joke, they’re a fun bunch of guerrilla marketers) have come out firmly against the iPhone on DRM and end-user licensing agreement grounds. The hacker community, on the other hand, has been on the all over the device like ants on a picnic. Apparently highly educated, determined, individualist and extremely willing-to-void-warranties ants, but we stand by our metaphor. Click the read link for all the gory details.

(more…)

PassAlong Networks, a software developer whose StoreBlocks platform powers f.y.e.’s music store, among others, has inked a new deal with EMI to offer DRM-free downloads of 100,000 songs in its catalog. This new deal, coming on the heals of the liberated catalog’s availability on iTunes and a confirmed deal with Amazon.com’s up-in-coming music store, is making EMI alot of friends in the blogosphere, as well as greatly expanding the sales channels through which its music is available. Good financial sense (EMI doesn’t want all of its eggs in one Apple basket). More importantly for the general population (and our loyal readers), there are now even more places to download the latest Norah Jones or Rihanna (not that we’re saying you should, just that you could) without crippling security “features”. Now, if only other labels would take the hint and start offering their music without DRM… (we’re looking at you Universal).

(via Digital Trends News, PassAlong Networks)

The UK press is abuzz with speculation that Universal Music will be the next major label to offer its catalog DRM-free . The Times of London, which broke the story on Amazon.com’s new music store last month, reported this weekend that the world’s largest music label is going to start trials of of selling DRM-free music in the coming months, with a final decision at the end of this year. However, Tech.co.uk has supposedly spoken to a senior Universal VP how outright denied the Times story. So, what’s a freedom loving music fan supposed to think?

Universal has alot to gain by ditching DRM. It would be able to dominate Amazon.com’s up-in-coming music download service with its immense catalog, while at the same time giving it the upper hand in any negotiations with Apple and the iTunes store (Universal is said to have a spiky relationship with Apple, so it is doubtful that even if it drops DRM, it would go to iTunes first). iTunes Plus has had some success, but differential pricing and privacy concerns have hurt what had at first seemed a promising shift in the status quo with the availability of EMI’s catalog on iTunes without crippling digital rights management.

In the end, this may just be another rumor. Universal is in a position to do pretty much whatever it wants. However, one thing is for certain. IF Universal ditches digital rights management, Sony/BMG and Warner Music will be in the minority in supporting DRM. More to come as this story develops.

(via The Times, Tech.co.uk)

AnywhereCD.com and Warner Music have settled a set of short-lived mutual lawsuits regarding AnywhereCD’s plans to sell bundled physical CDs and the accompanying, non-DRM secured MP3 files of the album. In April, Warner claimed that AnywhereCD’s plan violated their distribution deal by selling the MP3s and sued, and AnywhereCD countered shortly there after claiming Warner’s behavior was “malicious and in bad faith.”

Well, the two sides made nice this week, agreeing to disagree, but allowing AnywhereCD to sell the CD/MP3 bundles (which other labels apparently never had a problem with) until September 30, 2007. So, if you have a hankering for buying fair use-friendly digital downloads when you buy a new Green Day or (god forbid) My Chemical Romance CD (instead of, oh, we don’t know, ripping your CD yourself…), you’ve got a little over three and a half months to do so.

(from Defective By Design, Digital Media Wire)