Good news from Steve Jobs, Eric Nicoli, and company: EMI’s music now to be available without Digital Rights Management. A great move for consumers, innovation, interoperability and, one hopes, creative re-use of digital works. (Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing has the definitive post and list of links. Cory suggests that we help out with a thank-you gift for Mr. Jobs.)
I agree that the move by EMI to remove DRM is fantastic… but let’s not give Steve Jobs ANY credit for this. Jobs had ample opportunity to pursue DRM free music with the independent musicians trying to get in the IMS. There are several independent musicians who do not wish their music to contain DRM and have either been turned down by Apple or forced to copy protect their music.
Steve Jobs merely took the opportunity to look like the “cool guy” once again with a well-timed announcement.
Hooray for EMI – Boo for Steve Jobs.
Cool.