Makers of portable devices have different reasons to embrace DRM, Doctorow
said in a keynote presentation at the
Red
Hat Summit in Nashville.
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He pointed out that Apple is looking to prevent users switching from iPods to
competing devices by making sure that music from the
iTunes
music store plays only on the iPod.
"Apple [turns] every iTune you buy into a 99 cent price tag on switching from
Apple to a competitor's product," Doctorow told delegates.
"If you start with an iPod and you want to move to a
Creative
product and you have spent $50 on music, that's a $50 investment that you
abandon."
Using content to lock in consumers is even more important because such
devices have an average life span of 18 months.
In a commodity market for portable media players, Apple has no guarantee that
after such a time it will still have the best and/or most popular products,
Doctorow added.
Apple's competitors meanwhile are pushing for even more restrictive DRM in an
effort to entice content owners such as movie studios and record labels to sign
exclusive content licensing deals.
By offering to further tighten DRM restrictions, such companies are playing
to the content industry's fears of new technologies and piracy.
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