Thursday, June 19, 2008

The music industry abuses us and we're to blame

Article

Try as it might to do things the right way, iTunes is the result of countless negotiations with the record labels that continue to dislike everything we stand for and do everything they can to ensure that we're paying too much for a track that's locked down worse than anything we have ever witnessed in this business.

When you "buy" a song on iTunes, you're not really buying it. Instead, you're acquiring the license to listen to a song that can be taken away from you at any moment, can't be sent anywhere you'd like for it to be, and is subject to draconian copyright laws that see you paying too much for too little.

I, for one, am not to blame. Call me a curmudgeon (there are plenty of other reasons to), but I refuse to use iTunes, I refuse to buy music that's in any way locked, not portable, not full quality, uncompressed and re-rippable using any codec at whatever bit rate I choose at any time. In other words, so far, that means CDs. I'd be open to uncompressed CD tracks.

Now, the same thing is happening with video. I want to watch the current season of Battlestar Galactica. I'm totally willing to pay for it. But I don't want my computer hijacked, I don't want mandatory proprietary software, I don't want to "rent" it, and I want it to work. The DVD won't be out until next year. Is that too much to ask? Are we going to take this?

I know, I'm a total nerd.