Free Software Foundation to Jobs: Be First to Drop DRM

By Shaun Nichols

A branch of the Free Software Foundation known as DefectiveByDesign launched an online petition last week that calls on Apple CEO Steve Jobs to "set the ethical example" by eliminating DRM from iTunes. The petition, a response to an open letter on digital rights management Jobs wrote in February, reached its initial goal of one thousand signatures about five hours after going live.

The Free Software Foundation has begun an online petition urging Apple chief executive Steve Jobs to begin removing protections from the company's iTunes Music Store.

"As the largest purveyor of DRMed music, Apple carries a large part of the responsibility for the situation in which consumers now find themselves," the petition reads.


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Steve Jobs' iTunes dance

By Cory Doctorow

Now the Apple CEO says he would gladly sell songs without digital restrictions, if the record companies let him. That's hardly a brave defiance, and besides, I don't believe him.

In early February, Apple CEO Steve Jobs published an extraordinary memo about the music industry, iTunes and DRM (digital rights management), the technology used to lock iTunes Store music to Apple's iPod and iTunes Player. In the memo, Jobs said that "DRMs haven't worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy," and offered to embrace a DRM-free music-sales environment "in a heartbeat," if only the big four music companies would let him.


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'Why I don't believe Steve Jobs'

We may see the end of protected music downloads, but it won't be Apple's doing, argues columnist Bill Thompson.

For a company with a tiny share of the computer market and an increasingly perilous first mover advantage selling portable music players Apple punches well above its weight in coverage of its every move.

In January CEO Steve Jobs single-handedly distracted the attention of the world's technology press from the hundreds of announcements taking place at the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by pulling out an iPhone on stage in San Francisco.

The recent settlement of the long-running dispute with Apple Corps over the use of the Apple name garnered thousands of column inches and millions of page views online as aging editors took yet another opportunity to hope that the 40-year old Beatles music they grew up with could top the charts once again.

And much of the attention focused on the possibility that Beatles songs would be available on Apple's iTunes Music Store rather than any of the other download services available, giving Apple even more coverage.

This was followed by widespread coverage of the UK versions of the Mac versus PC ads, with David Mitchell and Robert Webb sacrificing any comic credibility their characters may have had on the altar of commercialism.


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Will Apple pick music's digital locks?

Steve Jobs, the boss of Apple, has set out his stall on the future of the music industry


In an open letter on the Apple website, Mr Jobs argues that the copy protection software used to protect digital music downloads from piracy has not worked.

In the letter he outlines a world where the record industry abandons so called Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.

"In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players.

"This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat." he wrote.

Read more on BBC News

What is DRM?

Steve Jobs, the head of Apple and a leader in the digital media download industry, said he would give up DRM "in a heartbeat" if record labels and film studios allowed it.

What is DRM?
How does DRM work?
Who is using DRM and why?
What are the problems with DRM?

Read Q&A on BBC News