Apple recently announced that by April, all music purchased on iTunes store will be DRM-free. Digital Rights Management (DRM) first came as a response to the colossal intellectual property theft using the ubiquitous internet. It is simply an amendment to media formats that sets the rules of who can play it, how many times as well as where and how often it can be copied. DRM-protected media is currently found on iTunes store, Napster, RealNetworks and other sites selling different kinds of digital media.
In this digital age, it is very difficult to impose security on items. It’s no wonder that DRM has failed miserably. Such is the view held by Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, whose open support for ‘DRM-Free’ music and has been a key factor in disengaging Apple from DRM-protected music. This means that in the future, music downloaded from iTunes store will be transferable to any device or computer without restrictions.
The pressure on Apple to use a DRM system (FairPlay DRM) came from the four major music labels, Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI who owned all the music on the iTunes Store forcing Apple to sell DRM-protected media.
Mohamed El Shami, a software developer explains, “The problem with DRM is obvious, it limits one’s freedom from reusing the content he owns. It’s extra pressure on the customer because he may be forced to use proprietary clients, and adds more technical overhead.
Presently, the music you buy from the iTunes store cannot work on any player other than an iPod, and music from Napster will work only on certain MP3 devices (excluding iPods). This is because not all DRM systems were created equal. The rules set by each company are so ridiculous that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the “leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world wrote an article titled “The customer is always wrong: A user’s guide to DRM in online music explaining the many restrictions on ‘DRM-Crippled’ media.
For example, in one version of Napster’s schemes, you are not allowed to copy purchased music to other devices or edit it in any way. It cannot be converted to another format and Napster reserves the right to change the terms of use at any time. To top it off, you forego the right to listen to music you’ve purchased if you haven’t renewed your subscription.
In short the DRM acronym can more lucidly be expanded as Decaying Re-sellable Media.
Intellectual Infringement (stealing) will always be a moral issue rather than a technical one because there are so many ways of going around it. Yet, the problem of copyright theft and digital piracy takes a different turn in Egypt. Here, downloading files from the internet is not so objectionable for a variety of reasons.
“I don’t mind downloading songs off the internet because all the money [revenue from legally purchased music] goes to the record labels and the artists themselves get very little, says Sarah, an Egyptian internet user.
And it’s not just music.
“In the past you couldn’t find software much less buy it, says Sherif, a computer engineer who experienced the sparseness of digital media and software. “No companies advertised selling software and it wasn’t possible to buy software online. Even today there are many sites that don’t accept international credit cards and PayPal doesn’t support Egypt.
Availability, however, is not the sole factor affecting the choice between purchasing material and illegal download.
“There’s a hassle of buying something, and it’s much easier to just download it. I watched ’88 Minutes’ (Al Pacino’s movie) before it was out, a year and a half ago. On download sites there is a list of popular downloads, but if you buy a DVD you risk paying a lot for a movie that’s not so good, adds Sherif.
Egypt is exposed to an enticing yet unreachable western market through the internet. The lack of legal means of acquiring such products has created shortcuts that are much easier to use. In addition, the prices for western products are more suitable for western incomes.
DRM might be crumbling for music, but other media like video and e-books remain largely protected.
If more software was produced and sold in Egypt or if more songs for example were available locally, there would probably be more pressure to highlight the problem of intellectual property theft. But till then, Egyptians continue to download their favorite songs and other entertainment material off the internet. Those experiencing a moral dilemma, on the other hand, lack the means to take a stance until simpler and more legitimate ways of accessing media become affordable and more available.
