My Way Finance

My Way Finance: "Apple Inc. indicated it would open its iTunes store to other portable players besides its ubiquitous iPod if the world's major record labels abandoned the anti-piracy technology that serves as the industry's security blanket.
Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, made the case for abolishing the protections known as 'Digital Rights Management,' or DRM, in an open letter posted Tuesday on the Cupertino-based company's Web site. He also explained why Apple had decided against licensing its own DRM technology, known as 'FairPlay,' as an alternative method for making iTunes accessible to all portable players.
Like many things the trendsetting Jobs does, his call for change created an almost immediate buzz.
Supporters hailed Jobs for leveraging Apple's growing clout as one of the world's largest music sellers in an attempt to remove restrictions that annoy many consumers. Critics, though, derided the message as a disingenuous maneuver designed to soften a recent backlash in Europe, where iTunes' incompatibility with other portable music devices besides the iPod has been branded has anticompetitive.

Jobs' essay, dubbed 'Thoughts on Music,' cited the recording labels' anti-piracy technology as the main reason music sold through iTunes can't be transferred to other portable players besides the iPod.
Those same DRM protections also prevent the iPod from playing music bought from many other competing online stores."

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