A rock musician has expressed anger at digital rights management (DRM)
technology after hearing complaints from fans who are having difficulty
importing his group's songs to programs like iTunes.
Speaking on a music forum, Tim Foreman, bassist with San Diego rock band
Switchfoot, wrote: "My
heart is heavy with this whole copy-protection thing.
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"We were horrified when we first heard about the new copy-protection policy
that is being implemented by most major labels, including Sony (our own label),
and immediately looked into all our options for removing this from our new
album.
"Unfortunately, this is the new policy for all new major releases from these
record companies. It is heartbreaking to see our blood, sweat and tears over the
past two years blurred by the confusion and frustration surrounding this new
technology.
"It is also unfortunate when bands such as ourselves,
Foo Fighters,
Coldplay, etc.
are the target of this criticism, when there is no possible way to avoid this
new industry policy."
Foreman then went on to provide details of how to crack the digital rights
protection.
He justified his actions saying: "We refuse to allow corporate policy to
taint the family we've developed together.
"We deeply regret that there exists the need for any of our listeners to
spend more than 30 seconds importing our music, but we're asking as friends and
partners in this journey together to spend the extra 10 minutes that it takes to
import these songs."
John Buckman, founder of music download service
Magnatune, said: "Users do
not want DRM so I am not surprised that a band is doing this.
"Music sales are sold by the four majors and not many bands are actually in
favour of DRM because it stops you ripping CDs and is implemented in a range of
ways by the online music sellers like iTunes.
"Advising fans to get round the technology could be a bit risky. It is a
crime in the US to subvert DRM and therefore it may be a crime to incite people
to do so."
The title of Switchfoot's latest album, Nothing is Sound, seems
strangely prescient.
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