The popularity of the iPod is putting pressure on the copy-protection business. CNet News reported yesterday that the most successful copy-protected CD to date, Contraband by Velvet Revolver, was the subject of many complaints from consumers who couldn’t play music from the CD on their iPod. According to the article, those complaints, and the continuing success of the iPod, has pushed the labels away from Windows-centric technologies for copy-protection. From the article:
When a copy-protected CD hit No. 1 on the US music sales charts last month, it marked a breakthrough for the antipiracy technology in all but one sense: The music still wouldn’t play on Apple’s iPod.
Now the two companies responsible for most copy-protected CDs are scrambling to create new versions of their technologies that are compatible with Apple’s popular digital music player. In the process, they’re both making substantial changes in the way CDs are digitally locked, changes that could ultimately be a setback to recent Microsoft strides into the music business.
"If you look at the 500 or 600 customer service comments we’ve gotten, you see that 80 percent of them have to do with iPod compatibility," said SunnComm International Chief Executive Officer Peter Jacobs, whose technology was loaded on last month’s chart-topping Velvet Revolver disc. "The rest are, ‘Why can’t I do what I want with my music.’ And a lot of those are really iPod questions too."
There is much more information in the full article, including how a less-Windows centric future could be in the offing, and we recommend it as a good read.
The Mac Observer Spin:
We don’t care for copy-protection of any sort. For the record, that would include Apple’s own FairPlay DRM scheme used by the iTunes Music Store (iTMS), though we point to it as the least-restrictive DRM scheme on the market.
What’s most interesting about this, however, is the corollary effect that Apple’s iTMS-iPod lock in strategy is having. Had Apple opened up the iPod to play WMA files, there would be no pressure for these companies to move away from WMA-based DRM schemes for CDs. This certainly doesn’t threaten to eliminate copy protection, or anything along those lines, but it’s a major defeat for Microsoft in its pursuit to control digital music formats.
So on the one hand we have the bad news that a copy-protected CD has been a commercial success in the US, but its very success could end up making the Mac less of a secondhand member of the community. That’s a weird sort of victory, if you can call it that, but the bottom line is that anything that keeps Microsoft from dominating music distribution is a Very Good Thing.