Steve Jobs: "Anti-piracy measures do not work"

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has posted his “Thoughts on Music”, (which should really be titled Thoughts on Selling Music) which makes a very persuasive argument to do away with restrictions on legally downloaded music. “Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.”

“For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.”

I could not agree with this more, especially with this: “DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy.”