posted on Monday, April 02, 2007 7:03 AM
by
Endie
EMI Removes DRM and Ups Quality, Apple Tags Along
As can be seen in the following link - which I admit I checked the date on for April 1st Tomfoolery on after a quick skim - EMI have announced that they will be removing digital rights management code from their entire catalogue as of May. Further, they will be upping the quality from 128kbps to 256 kbps. The upgrade charge will be 30 cents per track, but the new, higher-quality, DRM-free albums will be available at the same price as the old, lower-quality, DRMed ones.
Steve Jobs managed to say with a straight face:
"Some doubted our sincerity to break the iTunes bond between the store and iPod player. Hopefully, people can see that Apple is only concerned with doing the right thing for the customer."
Audience members with residual hearing in the upper frequencies normally lost by the time we reach 12 or so reported hearing an odd sound as Jobs said this, as if of grinding teeth. I mean, who's fooled? But for pending lawsuits and the fact that EMI were moving in this direction already, Jobs would have kept everything that iTunes sells locked down until Judgement Day.
Anyway, a big thank-you to EMI for trusting the consumer to responsibly enjoy their music without abusing that privilege through heedless and feckless piracy. Now, I'll download everything beginning with "A" and stick it on my share: everyone else take one letter each, except, um, Z and X and maybe Q: whoever gets them can...