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Yahoo, Monster Cable Executives Lend Support to Jobs’ DRM Removal Proposals

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Following up on Steve Jobs’s february 6th open letter regarding the presence of digital rights management encoding on music sold online, executives from Yahoo and Monster Cable have lent support to Jobs’ argument that the digital music markets can grow in the absence of DRM-protected content according to an article on AppleInsider.
“I’ve long advocated removing DRM on music because there is already a lot of music available without DRM, and it just makes things complicated for the user,” said Dave Goldberg, head of Yahoo Music in an interview with the Silicon Valley Watcher.
Goldberg mentioned that Yahoo’s music channel has engaged in experiments where it offered non-DRM-protected music and observed a boost in sales.
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greenituneslogo.jpg
Following up on Steve Jobs’s february 6th open letter regarding the presence of digital rights management encoding on music sold online, executives from Yahoo and Monster Cable have lent support to Jobs’ argument that the digital music markets can grow in the absence of DRM-protected content according to an article on AppleInsider.
“I’ve long advocated removing DRM on music because there is already a lot of music available without DRM, and it just makes things complicated for the user,” said Dave Goldberg, head of Yahoo Music in an interview with the Silicon Valley Watcher.
Goldberg mentioned that Yahoo’s music channel has engaged in experiments where it offered non-DRM-protected music and observed a boost in sales.
In a press release issued Tuesday, Monster Cable chief Noel Lee was quoed as supporting the sentiments present in Jobs’ open letter concerning digital rights management:
“Monster Cable shares Mr. Jobs’ vision of breaking constraints for legal music downloads,” said Lee. “We’ve always believed in the power of music. So much so, we launched Monster Music to introduce high definition surround to the world without restrictions.”
The Monster Music service currently offers contet in a high definition DRM-free format known as SuperDisc. The cable manufacturer was able to negotiate DRM-free tracks from the Universal music label.
Jobs has received criticism from multiple fronts regarding his open letter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation offering its immediate rebuttal that Jobs “put his music store where his mouth is” by stripping FairPlay DRM protection from songs sold through the iTunes Store while DVD protection cracker “DVD Jon” seconded the opinion and stated that according to his research Apple could remove FairPlay protection within two to three days.
In an article with the New York Times, Jason Reindorp, Zune marketing director for Microsoft, stated that Jobs’ suggestion that the music industry could offer its online wares without DRM protection “irresponsible, or at the very lease naive…”.
Other music labels have offered similar criticisms regarding the comments expressed in Jobs’ open letter.
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