Apple publishes Steve Jobs' thoughts on iTunes DRMs

Responding to recent criticism over the use of proprietary DRMs on iTunes, Apple published its CEO's thoughts on the subject.

After reminding that the iPod can play songs that don't include DRMs, Steve Jobs said Apple would open its FairPlay technology or totally remove DRMs from songs sold on iTunes if it could. But he added that sharing the code of the DRM technology would make it more vulnerable to hacks while majors are against the idea of dropping DRMs totally.

Apple is the worldwide leader in online music sales with more than 2 billion songs sold since the company started this activity. It represents more than 80% of the market.

However, during 2006, some competitors started selling music without DRMs. Though the music currently sold without DRMs is mainly from independent music companies, Apple was pointed out by the industry because it keeps selling all of its music with a proprietary copy-protection technology and doesn't allow any other company to make hardware or software playing that can play iTunes songs.

Our take: Apple should keep DRMs for the music companies that want them and remove them from those indies that sometimes prefer selling non-DRMed music.