Warner has become the third of four music giants to equivocate on the despised DRM.
This is an interesting case of a music lobby getting a law passed by the US Congress that the citizens just would not obey. There's a metaphor in here somewhere about a tea party, but it hasn't come to me yet.
And Google wouldn't help me find the applicable quote I was searching for, not the author, who I'm guessing was Thms. Paine.It goes something like, "Whenever those laws become unjust it is the duty of each citizen to takes arms to overthrow..." [If you can source it, please send it. I'm curious].
DRM, is an unjust law, and no more need be said on that art of the issue. But is the speed in which the record industry giants have equivocated to the wrath of their unruly customers. From beginning to end, DRM lasted less than five years, before, one at a time four of the five Gargantuan members f the record industry oligarchy decided to folded up their portion of the monopoly.
Now, Sony, a long-standing leader in keeping its stuff proprietary stands alone as an enforcer of DRM as all other members have now cut deals with either Apple or Amazon to unlock DRM. Will they continue to enforce it? If so, they will discover the world can live without the portion of music content they think they own.
I can just picture a Sony executive pacing in circles upon the executive carpet, crying, "My empire for a lawyer. My empire for an army of subpoena servers for all those peasants downloading my shit for free!"
They will equivocate as well. They really have no other choice. And being last will not help them.
BTW, a nice sidebar will be to watch the new marketplace competition between Apple Computer and Amazon. I think the result will be the eventual end to exclusive Internet distribution rights of music, but that will take a while. Until then, I think the competition will benefit us users.
And we bloggers can score one for ourselves. So many of us voiced the anger, pointed out the injustice of the law. Score one for the unruly mob that Dan Lyons mocks so often.
