There is something deeply wrong with the RIAA. Deeply. Deeply. Wrong. Yesterday, Steve Jobs wrote a little essay on the state of DRM and why Apple will not be licensing FairPlay or getting rid of it, even if Norway is pissed at him. In this essay he said the following:

However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.
Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies.

If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

And what was the RIAA’s response to this?

Apple’s offer to license Fairplay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels. There have been many services seeking a license to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time.

Either they have an excellent sense of humor, or they can’t read. You be the judge. —MEGHANN MARCO

Jobs to DRM: Drop Dead [LA Times]

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