incidentally, emusic.com sells DRM free mp3 and they are doing great. (just to give you a real life business example)

PS. Web Admin, you need to add Openrightsgroup.org into technorati, so people know and can search content better. (The site is a bit busy as of late, the auto scan will take 24 hrs, just leave the registration process running and comeback the next day)

http://technorati.com/

Some outfits are asking Twenty Five dollars for a copy DRM text file. I can buy at least three paperbacks for that much money.
But eventualy there will be a non Sony ebook reader and there’s plenty of good writers out there who will want to sell me their books direct. I’m confident that Sony’s efforts in this regard are doomed but I’m really glad you guys at Open Rights are in the trenches.

Keep at it Suw, you rock.

So what? The first belief is true, the others true in part. You place this sentance in front of “they need to discard DRM” as it if is a premiss, yet the first sentance can be removed without affecting the validity of the conclusion. Is this a statement of ORG policy that copyright on music should not exist?

“I doubt that they will [start thinking creatively] voluntarily,” I hope that they do it voluntarily, what’s the alternative? State imposed fines? Prison? The French are taking steps to ensure competition in the marketplace, this is a good thing, but don’t take it as evidence that state control over the form of the market itself is desirable or appropriate.

SJG

Easy and cheap beats free and hard. Which is why an AllOfMp3.com model can work. 192kb LAME VBR encoded MP3 without DRM. Charge $5 per album for the first 3-6 months. Then drop the price to $1 per album ever after. Offer lossless at $10 dropping to $2. Once the system works, digitise every piece of audio ever recorded and offer it up. It’s a volume game.

There is an argument that DRM has allowed Apple to grow the PMP market and build new distribution routes such as iTMS because it has given them a temporary monopoly. But it still sucks. And perhaps that temporary monopoly is coming to an end.