Apple/EMI DRM deal is a big bad joke

YOU ALL FELL for it, the easiest PR trick in the book, Apple, EMI and DRM. It really saddens me that not a single media outlet or reader picked up on it, they played you like a drum. Bad reader, no cookie. Bad media outlets, no cookie and a beating about the head and neck with a medium sized cod.

What happened? Apple and EMI triumphantly announced that they were removing DRM from Apple tracks for a mere $.30 more, upgradable if you got the old tracks. They are also giving it to you at a higher bit rate, 256Kbps instead of the older 128. Sounds good on the surface.

The problem is they snowed you, there is no removal of anything, this is a completely different product. The older ones remain totally DRM infected, cost the same, and if you bought them, you are just as locked in as you were, unless you tithe more.

The content mafiaa distracted you with a shiny thing, and sold you back the rights they had no standing to take in the first place. Readers hate it when I say this, but you are idiots if you bought that line.

Let me give you an analogy. Say you are walking down the street on a nice sunny day, and I walk up to you with a baseball bat and start beating you for no reason. In this analogy, I would be the content mafiaa, and you would be you. This would make me a 'bad person'.

Now say that I decided to stop hitting you out of nothing more than the goodness of my own heart. I beat you to a pulp, taunted you, and threatened you with lawsuits, and then stopped. Since you are much better off than if I continue to hit you, and it is all of nothing more than my good will that got you there, does this make me a good guy?

In a word, hell no. That is the problem, the content mafiaa has framed the argument such that the dumb sheep out there, that would be you, do not even question what they took away in the first place. They took your rights through a combination of doing it and buying lawmakers so it is illegal to complain. When you got used to the baseball bat hitting you, they stopped, and now the morons in the press are calling them good people? Are they really that easy to control? Don't answer that, they need the ad revenue.

In any case, unlike me with the baseball bat, the content mafiaa is not nearly that nice, they won't stop hitting you. In fact, they won't stop hitting you unless you pay them more. See the problem? Why are they being lauded again? Oh yeah, dumb sheep.

What was accomplished yesterday? Two things, a price rise and delivery of better quality content. Let's not beat around the bush, the price increase of 30 per cent is borderline outrageous, but over five years or so that iTunes has been in existence, it averages six per cent a year. Not hugely bad, but the cost of everything involved other than the Porsches for the content mafiaa's kids has gone down with Moores law, sometimes faster.

The same goes for the content quality. They are so laughably overdue to up this that it is almost embarrassing that they have to hide it so. Still you do get greater quality for the 30 per cent bump up in fees.

Hands up those who think that the technology in 2007 is more than advanced enough to deliver double the bits at half the cost over state of the art when iTunes broke cover in early 2001. With that in mind, nothing other than naked greed justifies the price increase, but don't forget who you are dealing with.

So, in the end, the content mafiaa stole your rights, and sold them back to you. They didn't even stop hitting you, the 'old way' is still there, and the beatings continue unless you pay and pay and pay. Throughout all of this, somehow people are lauding Apple and EMI. Dumb sheep.

If they did it without the price increase, I would have no problem with the move, and all the press who regurgitated the PR bull without questioning it. If they had dropped the older DRM infected tracks at the same time, I would have no problem with the way the press reported it. If this was anything more than a stealth price hike disguised as user benefit, I would have the same lack of problems.

Instead, Apple has their backs to the wall because of the EU. They are using DRM to distract you, the dumb sheep, and jack up your fees. You are not the beneficiaries here, you are being hit with a baseball bat. Wake up. For those who reported on this without thinking, please don't wake up, you deserve the bat. µ