Wednesday, May 05, 2004

The debut of the new Sony music site has resulted in a heated discussion over on Slashdot about all things music and DRM.

I continue to contemplate the impending debut of Microsoft Janus DRM technology that purports to solve some real problems with digital content distribution. Basically, a user subscribes to a service for say $20 a month and has unlimited download capability as long as the subscription remains current. This really rewrites the rules and changes the dynamics. Most iTunes/Apple fans can't see the forest for the trees and cling to paradigm that pay to own is the only way this can work.

Let's switch from music to Movies/Videos. For example with Microsoft Janus DRM type technology how would an online version of the popular Netflix service work. Let's say for $20 a month one can check out any film you want anytime and watch it over and over or just watch it once. As long as the subscription is paid up you can watch it on any supported device (PC, portable, etc.) at your convenience.

This is really going to interesting to see how this market develops and whether it catches on.

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