Earlier this week Apple announced in conjunction with EMI (one of the biggest music labels) that they would soon be selling music without DRM (digital rights). Before I get into why this is so important, let’s first see how we got to here today.
Copyright is a fundamental in the US for business innovation. The concept of protecting technologies or ownership of works is instilled within our society. It is what allows our capitalistic business model to succeed. Say a business in the US developed a drug to cure AIDS. After investing millions, perhaps, billions of dollars in research and development the company would sell that drug on the market to make a profit. But what if their results could easily be copied by another company who could also sell that drug? The original company would no longer receive the compensation for all of the work they put in. Another company would profit off of the original company’s idea without having to invest the time or money. Thus there would be no desire for the original company to develop such a solution if there were no guarantees of protection. Such protection of innovation and technology is integrated into US law starting with the US constitution which grants these protections and rights of use “to promote the progress of science and useful arts” (NY TIMES)
It’s really about time that music executives started realization that overprotection in the end actually hurts the business model. Just look at Napster as the prime example. The RIAA in its fury to stem the piracy of music shut it down.