Ahoy, thar be mp3s ahead!

The ethics of downloading music online have been hotly debated since such a thing was a feasible option. Gone are the halcyon days of Napster when any song or album you wanted could be had with a simple search and a click. Gone are the slightly less ideal post-Napster days when a throng of imitators still allowed one to trade music in exchange for a few popup ads at best and a virus infestation at worst. The more music was being downloaded and the more the record companies threw a fit, the less fun we all had on the internet. Now, we pay for our music downloads; most people use the near-monopolistic iTunes while a few people use other services such as the new and dubiously improved Napster. Buying CDs is nearly out of the question as the price of an average new release nears $20. Naturally, there are a few music pirates left out there, but to divulge our…I mean their sources would be unwise. (Editor’s note: I download to try, when I like something, I do put my money where my mouth is. Usually.)

Things are about to change again. While legitimately downloaded music tracks are a relative bargain at a dollar or so a song, the technical limitations are quite a burden. For example, if you don’t use an iPod you can’t download songs from iTunes which is the biggest online music store, period. For my own musical entertainment, I use a petrified Dell Digital Jukebox and I couldn’t be happier with it, however the avenues for getting legitimate music are limited. Not anymore! Apple and EMI have struck a deal wherein EMI songs will be slightly more expensive on iTunes but will be much more easily shared, effectively removing the DRM (digital rights management) technology which is currently responsible for the technical limitations. To compensate for the price increase, the track quality will also improve. I predict that other major labels will soon follow suit, naturally choosing to sign up with iTunes first and possibly putting the final nail in the coffin of other online music vendors. Nonetheless, this is a step in the right direction.

Digital Rights Management really took a sour turn when Sony began releasing CDs with an invasive anti-piracy software that installed itself when all you wanted to do was listen to a track or two. There didn’t have to be any sharing or downloading afoot, Sony took the preemptive step to install this software in a manner that hackers use to spread viruses. People who bought these Sony CDs couldn’t even put them on their own iPods, as the anti-piracy software blocked the compatibility. The number of copies one could make of the disc was limited, but at what cost? And what happened if you didn’t want the software?

One user “found that traditional methods of uninstalling the program would not work, and that attempts at removing it corrupted the files needed to operate his computer's CD player, rendering it useless.”

The maker of the software is now making patches available that make it possible to remove the offending program, but people’s privacy has already been violated.

Are these efforts working? In a word: no. The New York Times reports, “Peer-to-peer networks yielded five billion downloads in 2006, whereas 509 million songs were downloaded from iTunes-style services.”

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/02/BUGR3P05BC5.DTL

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/02/AR2005110202362.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/technology/02drill.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1175565103-yOOVmCnWk5Uu3v5TKOJzHQ

(If I got some of the technical stuff about iPods and iTunes wrong, please let me know. I use neither.)