EMI Music goes DRM-Free

A little geek news, but in reality this affects everyone.

Today EMI Music, the third largest music label, announced that they will begin offering DRM-free music from the iTunes Store starting in May. This is great news, and will hopefully be the jumping off point for the end of DRM.

DRM, Digital Rights Management, took a serious hit today, and that's great news for every consumer. DRM is silently crippling every area of digital content available today, and is hamstringing any new developments from moving forward.

DRM is a big and complex topic, but basically it is how the movie industry and the music labels control what we consumers can do with the content we buy from them. DRM is what keeps music bought from iTunes from playing on anything but an iPod. DRM is what keeps you from quickly and easily making backups of your DVDs. DRM is what keeps you from doing what you want with your purchases.

And despite what the music and movie industry says, DRM is what causes normally honest people to pirate music. Who wants to pay for content that has all these restrictions? Not many people. Now we honest folks have an option. I can do what's right and compensate the artists for their work, and still enjoy my music or movies on any device and wherever I want.

Finally!