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Prefix Tech Represents
It might be overkill to draw your attention to the enormous "Urge" logo to the right, but we figure some explanation is in order. Our article on the MTV / Microsoft venture will be the first in our expanding coverage of music technology, including download services, MP3 players, and other assorted gadgetry.
It's a confusing world out there - CD's may be giving way to electronic media, but the industries in charge aren't doing so with the consumer in mind. The RIAA sues grandmothers without computers and the children of dead men. Every service out there, including Urge, includes some sort of Digital Rights Management designed to restrict you in your usage of downloaded music and other media. The two dominant standards, Apple's FairPlay and Microsoft's PlaysForSure, have both been undermined recently by determined hackers. This leads to an odd tug-of-war; clearly consumers are dissatisfied with DRM which restricts even the honest folk who dutifully pay their $0.99 for an iTunes track, but the attempts to resist DRM gives studio execs more compulsion to enforce standards. Instead of trying to find a common standard that would let people play their iTunes tracks on iPods and other devices, they move backwards with silly schemes like combining DRM with advertisements.
Click through for more thoughts on DRM, and one service that avoids it.

Media companies have every right to protect their profits, within reason, though studies have been generally mixed on how large an effect piracy has had on industry sales. The most successful music DRM system is currently iTunes. Despite Apple promoting their FairPlay encryption system as an open one, one can still only use an iPod to play music purchased on iTunes. For those entranced with the white sheen and the tactile sensation of the scroll wheel, this restriction may be moot, but the fact remains that Apple's practices protect their own interests.
Microsoft has backed their own DRM standard, called PlaysForSure. It licenses the standard far more liberally than Apple, allowing a variety of manufacturers such as Creative Labs, Samsung, iRiver, and Archos to play files downloaded from a number of services like Napster, Yahoo Music, Rhapsody, and MTV Urge. Of course, this DRM standard ties the user to Windows, so Microsoft's altruism may be suspect here.
eMusic does things the right way, offering unencrypted MP3's for purchase to the consumer. These files may be played on your iPod, Creative Zen player, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or any number of other MP3 compatible technologies. Of course, without broad industry support, you're less likely to find your favorite artists on eMusic.
Restricting user's rights is no way to ensure sales. Hackers will always find inventive ways around such systems, and mistreatment by the record industry will encourage efforts to do so. If media companies offer quality products at reasonable prices, unencumbered by convoluted copyright schemes, then people will more compelled to legally purchase media. iTunes has proven the market for digital downloads; we now need at the very least a broader interoperability of DRM standards, and ideally an elimination of DRM altogether.
These thoughts apply to purchased materials; when a user purchases a song, they should have the right under fair use to convert it to a number of formats for non-simultaneous use. In other words, if I own Stankonia, I should be able to listen to it on my home stereo, my MP3 player, my car stereo, and my computer at work, without paying a separate fee for each device.
The PlaysForSure standard also has support for music "rental". You pay a monthly subscription fee, and can download as much content as you like, giving you the capability to play it on a computer or transfer it to a compatible device. You don't own the content; you must continue to pay a monthly fee or the license will expire and you will no longer be able to play the media file. Staunch anti-DRM advocates oppose this scheme as well, but it seems like a much more sane approach for rights management. Users may temporarily access music they might only intend on listening to for a month or two, and can then discard the tracks. This scheme allows for a broad access to musical catalogues, so those interested in exploring new music they might not normally encounter can load up their players as they see fit. Of course, the more these schemes get hacked, the less likely the industry may be to continue supporting it.
In a country where user's rights are obscured more often in favor of corporations, the best thing one can do is stay educated on DRM policies and technologies. The Electronic Frontier Foundation offers resources on consumer rights; while their page on fair use may be somewhat strident, they offer a good introduction to the issues involved.
The industry doesn't make it easy for those who just want to listen to some good music. Prefix will strive to provide some clarity in the face of industry shenanigans.
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hey man - ive really dug all of your tech posts and the urge article. a real nice addition to prefix

guy awesomeo

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