By embracing DRM-free music, the record labels have finally admitted the truth to themselves: not just that the cat’s out of the bag, but that he’s high-tailed it halfway across the country. The levels of piracy were already immense before the recent DRM-free push, so the music companies clutching onto rights management was like polishing the brass on the Titanic.
Instead, the labels have redefined their enemy: sure, they’re still concerned about the shadowy legions of faceless file-sharers casually trading MP3s, but shadows are by nature intangible and hard to pin down. It’s much easier to fight an enemy that you can see, one that doesn’t bother trying to hide from you.
Like, say, Apple.
Full article at Macworld.
__