It appears that the record companies are not willing to let go of DRM. Not only has Steve Jobs' plea to the record companies fallen on deaf ears, but music purveyors are finding new and more intrusive ways to bring DRM into our lives!
The RIAA is still hunting downloaders, most recently releasing a list of the top offenders in terms of college campuses. The worst offenders? Ohio, Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina. They have sent out 15,000 complaints to the schools, which is triple the amount sent last year. And despite everything, music sales are still going down, which they claim is due in part to piracy. However, even though the record companies are working in concert to stop illegal downloading, a student at Amherst (the sixth worst offender on the list) said: "You know, downloading is such a part of student culture that college kids will never stop."
In another step back, BitTorrent has broken down and joined the ranks of the new Napster. They are planning to launch a site called the BitTorrent Entertainment Network which will legalize the software in the eyes of the law. However, just like iTunes, BitTorrent's legal material will be encoded with DRM. It makes sense...this company had been vilified in the eyes of the record labels, which were hesitant I'm sure to take on this deal. However, with Google's purchase of YouTube, the validity of the online video download market is quickly growing.
A recent study claims that 62% of record executives think that dropping DRM - so that people can use the songs on any mp3 player - will encourage people to increase online sales. So where's the action behind those words?
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