US Congress thinking about unified DRM system

This would not be good news for Apple. They are the largest player in the digital music market and sell their iPods and songs on iTunes in huge numbers. The latest news in is that the United States Congress is considering laws which would force the companies offering music for sale on the internet to use a common unified DRM system. DRM refers to the administration of rights in a digital environment. Companies use this technology to protect files from unauthorized use, as well as to manage the financial transaction processing ensuring that the rights holders are compensated for the use of their intellectual property.

Their aim is to make music available for sale on the Internet protected by a standardized DRM. This would mean that a song downloaded from a music store would be able to be played on any music player. Currently, there are many standards floating in the market with Apple running their own version compatible with only iPod on the iTunes Digital Music Store.

The move has been proposed by Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, and Howard Berman, a Democrat from California. Their concern is the incompatibility between the stores like iTunes and Napster leading to inconvenience for the end customer. Lamar Smith said during the hearing: “This interoperability issue is of concern to me since consumers who bought legal copies of music from Real could not play them on an iPod”.

Apple missed on the opportunity to share their views while companies like Napster expressed disappointment at this move asking the congress to leave the decision with the tech companies and the consumers on what they chose. Napster CTO William Pence said: “Marketplace forces will continue to drive innovation in the DRM arena with attendant consumer benefits - new ways to enjoy digital music at a variety of different price points - while gradually solving the interoperability problem”.

Competition is good for the market and the end consumer. And different strategies are doing exactly that. Now, whether the user of the iPod player unable to purchase cheap songs from non-iTunes music store feels the same way is another story.