Yahoo!, Monster supports Jobs in DRM battle
Looks like Steve Jobs has found allies in the form of Yahoo! Music and Monster Cable executives in the quest to banish DRM. An executive from competitor Yahoo! Music, Dave Goldberg chimes in with: ``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." Claiming Microsoft's brand of DRM ``doesn't work half the time", the exec claimed Yahoo! made several attempts to offer music with or without DRM, and the removal of DRM has improved sales.
Additionally, Monster Cable backed up Jobs with a statement from head Noel Lee: ``Monster Cable shares Mr. Jobs' vision of breaking constraints for legal music downloads.... DRM is a complex and political issue, but digital music compatibility is even more complicated to consumers and limiting to the industry.... We are proud to support an open format and leaders like Steve Jobs who are making the efforts to get us there." The Monster Music branch offers a music format known as SuperDisc, which contains high definition surround tracks and DRM-free files. So... what now? Will other companies continue to stand up, or will Apple and the others buckle under the continued pressure from major labels to keep the DRM system intact?
