COPYCENSE

"On a panel a few weeks ago, I asked the head lawyer for Apple’s iTunes Music Store whether Apple would, if it could, drop the FairPlay DRM from tracks purchased at the Music Store," said Fred von Lohmann, counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "He said ‘no.’ I was puzzled, because I assumed that the DRM obligation was imposed by the major labels on a grudging Apple.

"Thanks to the recent Berkman Center report on the iTunes Music Store, I think I understand. Apple’s warm embrace of DRM here is every bit as reprehensible as Lexmark’s effort to use DRM to eliminate interoperable printer cartridges and Chamberlain’s effort to use DRM against replacement garage door clickers."

Electronic Frontier Foundation. FairPlay: Another Anticompetitive Use of DRM. Deep Links. May 25, 2004.

A Copyfighter’s Musings. Welfare Economics of FairPlay and DRM Lock-in. May 15, 2004.

Digital Media Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society. iTunes: How Copyright, Contract, and Technology Shape the Business of Digital Media. (.pdf) (Green Paper, v. 1.2) April 10, 2004.