stage4 Interviews Tim O'Reilly About DRM, iTMS, & More

by , 10:00 AM EDT, July 29th, 2003

Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly & Associates fame has been interviewed by stage4, a UK-based art and technology ezine. In the interview, Mr. O'Reilly talks about the evolution of distributing music online, pointing to Apple's iTunes Music Store as an example of a distribution method that he calls the "closest yet to a system that users feel is fair and usable." He goes on to say that once the iTMS or something similar makes it to the Windows platform, consumers will begin to "see a whole new ballgame."

Other topics of discussion in the rather lengthy interview include the state of the entertainment industry and its battle against consumers, a possible increase in pirate file servers and streaming radio stations, Mr. O'Reilly's WWDC 2002 speech, what Microsoft's punishment should have been and how it could have affected the Internet and Microsoft itself, Macromedia Flash as a standard, and the future of O'Reilly & Associates. From stage4:

We are going through a major paradigm shift in terms of the distribution of music and other digital content. What is your view on the future relevance of DRM technologies, Peer2Peer networks, and traditional media companies?

In the end, I think that DRM is a non-starter, at least as currently conceived. It's baffling to me that the content industries don't look at the experience of the software industry in the 80's, when copy protection on software was widely tried, and just as widely rejected by consumers. As science fiction writer William Gibson said, "The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet." The software industry was the first to face the issue that bits are easily copyable. It was also the first to try to create artificial boundaries to that copying. But because copy protection greatly inconvenienced customers, it slowed the adoption of any software that used it. We're seeing exactly the same thing now with music, where copy protection schemes have caused consumers to reject the crippled offerings of the commercial online music services.

There is much more in the full article at stage4's Web site, and we recommend it as an interesting read.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Tim O'Reilly almost always gets it, and gets it before most of the rest of us even know there is something to get. In the case of DRM, his thoughts echo ours, and we very much wish that the persons making the decisions for the labels would pay attention to things such as this interview. Perhaps they, too, might get it. Then again, Mr. O'Reilly is far from the only person to talk sensibly on the subject of online music distribution, so it's not as if understanding that customers do not want to be burdened by onerous DRM restrictions is some big Super Duper Secret™.

As Mr. O'Reilly said, Apple's iTMS is the closest thing yet to doing it right, and we actually think Apple's DRM is still unnecessarily restrictive. Hopefully the marketplace will figure this out.

In the meanwhile, check out this interview. If you are interested in the subject of online distribution and DRM, you'll find it to be a good read.

stage4