The protection's off, as Warner commits to Amazon
DRM-free MP3s from music label to be sold on US website
Warner Music Group is making its music available for download from Amazon without Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection, enabling consumers more freedom in how they listen to and transfer digital music.
All tracks on Amazon are compatible with iTunes and Windows Media Player
Amazon.com's download store is a major competitor to iTunes, which uses DRM to restrict the use of some of the tracks available there. Warner is the third major music label (the others being Universal and EMI) to offer DRM-free music on Amazon - iTunes has only enticed EMI. Sony BMG is now the only major recording group not signed up with Amazon's download service - which is only available to US customers at present.
Warner will be keen to work with Amazon in the hope that the online retailer can help to boost a digital market that is not growing fast enough to offset a 15 per cent decline in CD album sales in the US. Artists on Warner's label include Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, Sean Paul and James Blunt.
By dropping DRM copy protection, music distribution companies are making it much easier for consumers to buy songs online and load them onto a digital music player. However, the copying of music is still illegal, but it's difficult to enforce as piracy is quite commonplace. Warner Music’s agreement with Amazon is expected to be made internationally available in the near future.
COMMENTS
Legality??
Sorry Daniel B but your analogy sucks big time. Driving down the road at 200 km/h endangers and risks the life of the driver, any passengers they have and other motorist and pedestrians. This is hardly comparable to Martin Ushers daughter removing DRM from a song she has legally purchased is it. You sound like one of the RIAA monkey boys, they would have you believe that every time you download a song you're the cause of a a kitten getting killed.
What always strikes me as rather strange is that companies such as Sony have been selling mp3 players for a good deal longer then you have been able to legally download mp3s especially when you consider that ripping a CD to mp3 is illegal. So stripping DRM from a song is just as illegal as ripping a CD to Mp3. Stop dramatising the issue.
its illegal to rip CD's to Mp3's
Patents and DRMs
mp3 a "patent-encumbered" format? I'm not aware of anything there... I actually thought it was some half-baked pretext for RedHat not supporting mp3's under xmms (as of RedHat 9 and then Fedora). My .ogg files seem to work only in Linux, and I don't want to be OS-restricted in the same way .wma does to Windows. Oops!
As for Apple's DRM, the matter is not if you can or can't crack DRM, but the fact that its there, and its "illegal" to crack it. Sure, I might be able to drive 200 km/h on the wrong side of the road too, but I don't think the cops would like that argument.
Offer downloads for free when baught with a CD
I've always thought Amazon should offer downloads for free when you buy a CD. That way you have a digital copy instantly, and a top quality copy on its way in the post. The best of both worlds! Only there's no need to charge twice for it... it should be an added extra, or maybe an extra 10% on top of the CD price at most.
@Chris C
Oops... (blush)
But what were you trying to imply with the use of 'K' and 'k'?
Apple's DRM is in name only
Probably one of the worst kept consumer secrets is that Apple's DRM seems to be more to keep the labels happy ("We've got DRM") than a technical obstacle to track copying. I notice, for example, that my daughter buys quite a lot of material from iTunes but she has a Zune, not an iPod. The first thing she does -- and everyone else seems to do -- is strip the DRM off because its just a nuisance.
So I expect as the barriers come down Apple will drop the DRM.
