Audio CDs are DRM-Free, according to the Dutch
Music publisher EMI has announced that it will no longer be manufacturing audio CDs with DRM software, reports Boing Boing. According to BB, a translation of this Dutch article asserts both EMI and Macrovision have ceased coupling audio CDs with DRM.
DRM-free CDs are a giant step in the right direction for consumer rights with regards to copyrighted content. Content producers and distributors certainly have a right to guard their property, but at some point there is a line that cannot and should not be crossed. As far as this author is concerned, that line is quite clear: it’s not justifiable for a company to violate my rights, simply because I might violate theirs.
What rights am I referring to? A few very basic ones:
- Provided the situation falls under the umbrella of personal use, I have the right to play back content that I purchase, wherever, whenever, and however I wish, no questions asked.
- I also have the right to make backup copies for archival purposes.
Read that last paragraph over again. Take note that I wrote “… play back content that I purchase“. Not rent, not subscribe to. Purchase. “Purchase” implies ownership.
These basic rights are the reason why I have never purchased music from an online digital music retailer. Despite the fact that I own and prize an iPod, the fact that purchases from the iTunes Music Store are deliberately inoperable on other digital music players is absurd. Didn’t Maxell cassettes work with the Sony Walkman? Could you imagine if TDK DVDs were only compatible with Panasonic DVD players and Toshiba televisions?
Perhaps the return to DRM-free CDs means that record labels are coming back around to the lessons they learned about fair use from the Betamax case decades ago. The industry demanded exorbadent prices for moves on VHS, and so their customers hit up the video store, then hit up the record button on their VCRs. The industry tried and failed to stop the VCR. Eventually realized that they could compete if they just lowered the damn price of a tape. With tapes available at a reasonable price, it was no longer worth it to spend the time required to pirate one.
