Rich Fiscus
8 May 2008 15:46
At the Digital Hollywood conference, where entertainment industry representatives are meeting to discuss technology and trends in digital content delivery, David Hughes of the RIAA made bold statements about the future of DRM. Despite a clear move toward selling DRM-free music by every major label Hughes, the RIAA's Senior Vice President of Technology, says DRM is far from dead, and even intimated that it's nearly impossible to make money on digital music without it.
"(Recently) I made a list of the 22 ways to sell music, and 20 of them still require DRM," said Hughes. He added "Any form of subscription service or limited play-per-view or advertising offer still requires DRM. So DRM is not dead."
Fritz Attaway, of the MPAA had a slightly different perspective. He characterized DRM as a tool to make sure consumers understand the licensing content is released under, saying "We need DRM to show our customers the limits of the license they have entered into with us."
The pro-DRM sentiment wasn't echoed by all the panelists though. Rajan Samtani, director of business development at digital watermark developer Digimarc Corp. and a former employee of ContentGuard, a company involved in creating DRM solutions, feels it's time for the entertainment industry to admit DRM doesn't work. He said "These kids have too many ways to get around DRM."
If Hughes is representative of the thinking at the RIAA is it any wonder that EMI doesn't think they're getting their money's worth from the trade group?