What Steve Jobs’s DRM announcement means:
Every iTunes song you buy for 99 cents amounts to a 99 cent tax on switching from an iPod to a Zune. That’s because your iTunes songs won’t play on your Zune — or on any other player, save those made or licensed by Apple.
At some point you have to wonder if someone is trying to trick you or really believes what they’re saying. If you burn a DRM-ed track to CD, then re-rip, you’re home free. Everyone knows that. Cumbersome? Yes. Wasteful? Check. Easy? Sure. Legal? Yup.
That [money you spent on DRM-ed tracks] you kiss goodbye if you buy a sexy little Creative Labs Zen or a weird little no-name from the wildly imaginative entrepreneurs of Malaysia. Not only won’t your iTunes Store music play on those devices, it’s illegal to try to get it to play on those devices.
And here I thought Jobs’ message was that DRM was the record labels idea and the right place to start pushing for the end of DRM was with them. But for some reason, Apple is the bad guy in Cory’s world. The best is the enemy of the good, I guess. If we can’t open the digital music completely, we shouldn’t bother.