Charlie sez, "While Jon Johansen ported PyMusique to C#, now called SharpMusique, a head of IFPI Norway says they don't care about PyMusique and that all the blame is on Apple and its proprietary DRM:"
To the degree that iTunes sells music based on proprietary barriers, this is not something that has happened with the recording industry's blessing and celebration. We are skeptical to this. This is a problem Apple has to solve." […] "As far as I can see PyMusique does not violate the DRM system in iTunes, it only keeps the music away from the (iTunes) program.
It's funny to see the European equivalent of the RIAA saying that Apple deserves to have its DRM broken, of course.
But the REALLY funny thing here is the nonsensical term "proprietary DRM." DRM is by definition proprietary. Even in the "standards bodies" where they are setting out DRM systems, these are not freely implementable — instead, you have to go on bended knee before a cartel of studio executives and beg permission to have your implementation approved. Shipping an unapproved DRM is a one-way ticket to an anti-circumvention lawsuit.
Among the grounds for refusing to approve an "open DRM" is that you want to include an output to some other DRM that hasn't been approved — if you build to a "DRM standard," you have to waive your right to contract with anyone building to different standard.
But it gets worse: say you get permission to include an output for some other DRM system that you think your customers want and use. If, at some time in the future, the cartel decides that the other DRM system is no good (say, because Jon Johansen has released OtherDRMMusique), they demand the right to force you to eliminate that DRM from your system — even if you have a contract with that DRM provider promising to include it.
So you not only waive your right to contract up to the moment that you implement the "standard," but also for the indefinite future.
It's like a schoolyard friend who says, "If you want to be my pal, you have to promise not to talk to the goth kids — only the jocks." So you end up in a study group with a bunch of jocks and your erstwhile friend says, "I hate jocks now. Stop hanging out with them. From now on, you have to hang out with the D&D nerds." When you protest that if you walk away from your study group you'll flunk out of school, your "friend" just shrugs and says, "I told you when I agreed to be your friend that this might happen. Tough."
Implement a DRM "standard" and be prepared to have your devices redesigned at regular intervals, to the whims of the most paranoid, power-drunk, technophobic executives in the world.
(Thanks, Charlie!)
