Ever since Napster 1.0 and the shutdown of that revolutionary P2P app, the music industry has been falling over themselves trying to implement a grand scheme of encoding music with DRM (digital rights management). Once music is encoded with, say, Apple’s FairPlay DRM, the music files will only play on Apple computers that have that user’s permission (5 maximum) and iPods that are recognized by those systems as belonging to that network. There are several DRM lockdown schemes, and all are required of the tech companies to implement as per the DCMA agreement that the RIAA was heavily involved with.

Now, for the last year or so, there were insistent grumblings throughout the music industry that the RIAA and/or the Big Four of the record companies were somehow entitled to a cut of, get this… Apple’s iPod profits! As you may well imagine, this was scoffed at by and large as the baby-ish whinings of music execs that aren’t somehow content with the revenue that Apple’s iTMS sales pull in for the music industry and artists. The theory these execs have is that, since some music is still shown to be pirated off P2P networks and acquired for free, and then being played on these ¹ultra-popular iPods and being harbored on said devices, that entitles them to a cut of the player’s profit line. Never mind the fact that there’s many ways to apply this illogical thinking in other areas of tech and business… and the fact that these ideas would be laughed out of boardrooms and courts as fast as they were spewed out of mind.

Here’s the meat of the matter (finally, you say!). Microsoft is pitting themselves in direct competition with Apple on the portable media player front by releasing their ZUNE player this coming Tuesday, November 14th. During their talks with Universal Music, it was decided that Microsoft will get the rights to sell the music if they allow Universal a one dollar profit on every ZUNE sold! Microsoft, needing this deal as Universal currently puts out 1/3 of the total music sold in the US alone, said yes sir to that. In a recent article on Billboard.com, Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Doug Morris stated the reason for this bas-aackwards draconian tactic:

“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it… So it’s time to get paid for it.”

By this, I think it’s safe for us all to assume, he meant all portable MP3 players, including all models of iPods.

Wait a second, Mr. Morris sir! Did I somehow miss some facts here?? Did UMG somehow have a small team of software and hardware manufacturers work with Microsoft’s XBox division in creating the ZUNE player? Did UMG subsidize the MS R&D department in its tireless ZUNE endeavors? Did you even have a hand in creating whatever DRM encoding MS is going to be using this time around, now that Microsoft’s very own “Plays-For-Sure” DRM isn’t going to be used on the ZUNE?

Let’s have some more common sense questions, more food for the brain! Since laptops and desktop computers can potentially harbor pirated music, are you going to demand a cut of computer sales, too?! And while we’re talking about potentials here, are you insisting that all iPod and other MP3 player owners are thieves?! That is a mighty big assumption there, Mr. Douglas Morris. One that Steve “MonkeyBoy” Ballmer made a little over a year ago, and created a backlash within the press that eventually made him regret making that statement² and yet he still didn’t apologize for, even though it pushed away many Mac users who might have once considered buying a Microsoft product.

I’ll be honest and say that, yes, I do have some music downloaded off LimeWire. I’m a thief, and it’s not justifiable, even though I buy the music later if I’m impressed with the artist to get the whole album. I don’t like investing in a band or artist if I’m not going to like them. However, there are people who have the money to burn that have no pirated music on their players or computers: all the music is either bought online then downloaded with the necessary DRM anti-piracy encodes, or ripped from the owner’s CDs. Is UMG that insistent about this issue… to make the supposed “piracy money” off the people who are truly innocent? I’m ashamed enough of the music industry as it is; I didn’t need another excuse, Mr. Morris. His words and ethics in this earn him The Esoterik Blog’s “Idiot Of The Week” award.

There’s an interesting rebuttal of this issue on MacDailyNews, where I originally found out about this.

Oh, one more thing. I’ll stop downloading music to try out, to see if I’ll like the artist in the long run, when labels like UMG will get a clue and stop signing “artists” like Fergie, whos album Fergalicious (A&M Records) I wouldn’t waste a cent on the bandwidth to download any of the songs! That’s just my 2�… I know everyone’s entitled to their own tastes.

¹ For nearly two years, Apple’s iPod has dominated 75% of the total portable MP3 player market.
² Sorry. I did the research and I didn’t see any signs that he regretted his words. Jerk!

Technorati Tags: Idiots, UMG, Universal, Doug Morris, Zune, Microsoft

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Idiot Of The Week, Music, Other Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.