#FF00AA

From here on, February 6th will be remembered for two things: my birthday, and Steve’s open letter [via] justifying why Apple adds DRM to the tracks it sells, and needs to keep FairPlay closed and secret.

However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

But would they, though? At the time this was negotiated, they had no idea the iTunes Store would actually work and get them a non-negligible amount of money, and they just needed all the easy ways out they could get.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands.

Heh.

The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute.

This is the same Steve Jobs who doesn’t want to allow third-party software on his iPhone. In other words, I don’t really doubt that he’s sincere on this point. (Whereas I don’t think he’s completely honest when he says that, because only 3% of all iPod music is FairPlay, the lock-in is totally negligible.)

Plus, it’s likely much easier for them to make a tiny modification fixing FairPlay after it’s been “blindly” cracked, rather than re-engineer the whole thing after hackers have been supplied with the entire, precise DRM blueprint.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. […] This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. […] Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. […] No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

Wait, what? You were doing alright so far, but the last part threw me off. Sure, if you want to be nitpicky, CD protection isn’t exactly DRM, but that’s still a very weird assertion. (Not that CD protection actually works.)

Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.

Agreed. But the recent evolution of European law seems to indicate that music companies are much more effective at lobbying than Apple is.