Point 1: The age of digital music has well and truly kickedin. This has meant that piracy has become more of a threat to the musicindustry than ever before; the introduction of bittorrent software and otherP2P networks has enabled broadband internet users to illegally download musicalbums in the space of just a few minutes, and with consummate ease.

It's so easy in fact, that millions of everyday peoplearound the world do it on a regular basis, without even feeling they've doneanything wrong.

Point 2: With larger hard drives, improved soundcards anddecent computer speakers now being commonplace in the average household, the PCis fast becoming the central hub of home entertainment. And that's why peopleare less interested in CDs these days, and more interested in MP3s, despite theappalling drop in quality.

The question: Apple CEO, Steve Jobs has now called fordigital rights management to be scrapped from digital music downloads. If thiswere to happen, would it give the music industry a healthy boost?

It has to be said, paying 79p to download songs which arelocked down to one computer and one portable device, is a bit of a turnoff whenyou can easily download non-protected freerange MP3's for nothing which just asmuch ease. But the download stores have no other choice, as record labelsinsist on 'protecting' their property.

So what if a downloaded track from iTunes had no digitalrights restrictions? That would mean you could play it on multiple computers,listen to the tracks on multiple non-iPod MP3 players. And generally you wouldfeel that you actually owned music, instead of feeling like you were onlyborrowing it.

I know that I would be far more likely to download musicfrom iTunes or Napster if these rights restrictions were removed. To make meswitch from CDs they'd also have to up the bit rate of their MP3's, but that'sanother matter entirely.

The main obstacle to scrapping DRM would be record labelswho don't want their music being downloaded on the web and then shared withpeople who haven't paid.

But surely, if people can download for free by illegalmeans, or rip a CD and share the MP3s that way, would it really be such a bigdeal for the big four to just say, "okay, lets scrap DRM"? People have alwaysshared music, and so there's never going to be a way to stop them.

I think that scrapping DRM from legal downloads wouldinstantly make iTunes etc more appealing to music fans. It would certainlyattract my custom. Now if only the songs weren't ripped in such awful quality...

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Go back to Rungsberry HOME

Or try these other entries...

Rungsberry: The first entry

Aeulogy for a dead MP3 player

Savethe children: kill webspeak for good!

MP3sare great, just give them a chance!

Mybrick phone makes telephone calls

Make Mine a Rungsberry Ripple

Are iPods better than money?