EFF technologist on DRM, A le's role and the bigger picture

Seth Scoen, an EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) staff technologist, has an interesting blog post in which he analyzes some of the arguments surrounding DRM, A le's role and how DRM affects the market in more ways than simply locking down content. He also hopes to remind those who have gone astray from the meat of the topic that getting caught up in the Mac vs. PC (and A le vs. Microsoft) debates in the DRM world only serves to muddy the i ue, much like many political debates get too caught up in 'Democrat vs. Republican' rivalry.

One of the more important arguments that Seth examines in terms of DRM as a whole and how it affects market competition is that of 'it's the record labels, not A le who are to blame for the use of DRM'. Seth cites an EFF post from May, 2004 in which their own Fred von Lohma wrote about his chance to ask the iTMS head lawyer as to whether A le would stop using DRM if the record labels got really drunk one night lifted their requirement of it. The lawyer reportedly a wered "no", which prompted Seth to remind us that DRM clearly i 't just about protecting content - it's also about protecting profitable and closed products like iTunes + iPod, and, perha even more importantly, A le i 't the only one trying to do this.

Seth's post offers some interesting per ective on these DRM arguments, and it refreshingly delves deeper than the "A le's solution is terrible which mea you should use Microsoft's" banter. Check it out.

[via BoingBoing]