More Crying Over Spilt Milk

One of the primary recurring topics these days in the convergence of technology and media distribution (music, video, etc.) is Digital Rights Management (DRM) and its impact on technology, law, and markets.  I don't have the most complete, most well-considered, or most clear-cut approach to the issue, but I can say this much... unless and until DRM is light-weight, widely interoperable, and generally a non-issue (for reasons OTHER than mass-market coercion), it is doomed.  In the meantime, the unholy alliance is merely trying to recapture something that they may not have been entitled to receive in the first place.

The Sony/BMG CD-protection-rootkit kerfuffle (as previously noted) seems headed toward resolution, though it's unclear exactly how the less-sophisticated purchasers will be notified and provided with the necessary patches and de-installers to secure their computers once again. 

The latest example, however, is also a doozy... Verizon Wireless has announced its entry into the U.S. over-the-air music downloading game, matching Sprint's existing service with dual downloads (PC and phone) but moving the per-unit pricing down closer to  the iTunes Music Store.  As reported in numerous sources (PCS Intel, The Register, Engadget, CNET), there's a little catch to the VCast solution... the phones will read only WMA files.  The phones with over-the-air downloading will lose their native MP3 support. 

For those with Windows XP boxes, Verizon Wireless' software will upload MP3s to the phone but only after an automagical conversion to WMA.  The software doesn't exist yet for Mac and Linux, so those users are on their own to convert MP3 to WMA and then upload to the phone -- and it's apparently an open question whether the dual-download strategy will work on Mac and Linux.  The Verizon Wireless press team has quite the tin ear, contending (in the CNET article) that users get to exercise choice -- they can have native MP3 or the VCast Store.  PCS Intel is also reporting on a hack to restore native MP3 capability (that may void warranties, of course). 

I'm not one to say that all content must be free... I've known and respected far too many musicians and artists to think that I should enjoy their output without compensation.  At the same time, I'm hard-pressed to see how the competing, generally ineffective, almost-always ham-fisted attempts to lock down content (often cloaked in the name of "choice" and "enhanced user experience") are a net benefit to the consuming public.

There's a much longer dialogue welling up in my brain about how DRM breaks the basic compromise of copyright law, but that will have to wait (gotta run to work).