The RIAA has tried numerous times to get legislation passed concerning digital rights management software as well as spearheading the campaign that if they don't do something to protect their revenue people will be trading their intellectual property all over the internet.

Steve Jobs made a bold statement on Tuesday concerning DRM and the future of iTunes.

"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. 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. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies."

The "big four" music companies that Jobs is referring to are Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. If Jobs could convince these companies to allow Apple to distribute DRM-free music it would go a long way towards convincing the RIAA to approve the same.

- Read more of Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music

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According to a company statement provided by Apple spokesman Derick Mains, "Although iTunes 7.0.2 may work with Windows Vista on many typical PCs, Apple is aware of some known compatibility issues and recommends that iTunes customers wait to upgrade to Windows Vista until after the next release of iTunes, which will be available in the next few weeks." Apple declined further comment.

According to a notice posted on Apple's Web site, compatibility problems include the inability to play music or video purchased from the online iTunes store, difficulties synchronizing contacts and calendars and possible failures of iPods plugged into a Vista computer. Various iTunes customers are reporting that you cannot authorizeiTunes (for WIndows) on Vista to play things purchased from the iTunes Store.

I've heard of some the Vista issues such as QuickBooks being Vista "incapatable". So this is just another piece of software that Vista has problems with.

Adam Anderson, a spokesperson for Microsoft's Windows division, said the company did not believe iTunes users "should stop using Vista for these reasons."

I think the best option for everyone is to give Vista about six months to a year for software developers and Microsoft to get the current bugs worked out and start working on the bugs that will invariably have resulted from those fixes.

For more on the iTunes issue read here.
For more on the QuickBooks issue read here.

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The Recording Industry Associate of America (RIAA) may becoming
more open to the idea of digital music rights.

"It's a model worth looking at," John Kennedy, head of the
International Federation for the Phonographic Industry, said at a
press briefing last weekend in Cannes at Midem, the annual global
music market. "If the ISPs want to come to us and look for a
blanket license for an amount per month, let's engage in that
discussion..."

But Mitch Bainwol, head of the Recording Industry Association of
America, who was the co-host of the briefing, quickly interjected:
"...on a voluntary, commercial basis."

So what has changed in the IFPI and RIAA minds?
Digital downloads doubled in 2006, while traditional CD sales fell.
Secondly, Microsoft structured a fee with Universal Music Group
for its Zune player. Third, discussions about interoperability are
coming out again.

"We shouldn't kid ourselves," Kennedy said. " Steve Jobs holds the
biggest key to interoperability. He faces advice from us and pressure
from various governments around the world." As far as Jobs giving
in, he added, "it's going to be at the stage where he thinks it is
commercially advantageous to him."

The IFPI and RIAA need to realize that times are changing and that
if they wish to remain financially viable they need to change with
the new economy.

READ MORE

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Recently Apple has been sued because iPods can go up to 120 decibles (dbA).Sometimes I think that people are just looking for a high profile case to attach their name to. The lawsuit being filed by John Kiel Patterson contends Apple’s iPod is "inherently defective" in its design and can contribute to hearing loss. Steve W. Berman, an attorney for Patterson, was quoted as saying "Patterson does not know if the device has damaged his hearing. But that's beside the point of the lawsuit, which takes issue with the potential the iPod has to cause irreparable hearing loss"

It has the POTENTIAL to cause hearing loss. Well let me get the facts right.. since the iPod has the technical ability to go up to 120 dbA they should be sued. Okay well how about sueing babies all over the world. The average baby's cry is at 110 dbA. Since its Super Bowl weekend, we should sue them. The average noise in a football stadium is 117 dbA.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the maximum exposure time at 85 dBA is 8 hours. At 110 dBA, the maximum exposure time is one minute and 29 seconds.

So by those standards we can only attend 1 minute & 29 seconds of the Super Bowl per day.

Read more about the lawsuit

Read More about noise levels

Read More about earbuds

Read More about idiots from Lousiana

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