Apple's CEO Steve Jobs makes a compelling argument in a letter to music executives on apple.com, about iTunes' DRM (digital rights management) system FairPlay, which limits the use of song files protected with the system to iPods. He notes that this system was created in order to appease the major record companies who were leery about allowing their catalogs to be bought by digital download. Yet, he points out, the majority of music sold is on CDs, which have no piracy protection: "20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves." Jobs calls for the major record companies to allow the online sale of their catalogs without any digital rights protections, just as they do with CDs, thus opening iTunes to all competing MP3 devices.
The RIAA responded to Job's statement by suggesting, instead, that Apple license their DRM technology to all device makers. A Warner Music executive rejected Jobs' "manifesto" outright: "The notion that music does not deserve the same protection as software, film, video games or other intellectual property, simply because there is an unprotected legacy product in the physical world, is completely without logic or merit." Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported today that EMI, one of the "big 4" major record companies, is experimenting with selling their catalog in DRM-free MP3 format.
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