Discovering Realistic Models

The DRM saga continues... according to this article, the Entertainment Retailers Assoociation (ERA) blames DRM for slow sales. Copy protection is "stifling growth and working against the consumer interested" (Kim Bayley). They are asking the music industry to "put an end to DRM".

It's worth pointing out that the ERA doesn't seem to own any content, so you could argue that it's easy enough for them to say don't protect it. Still, they see their business growing as a result of removing DRM, and if they are right, then the recording industry's business would presumably also grow as a result. According to some reports, EMI's experiments in this direction have been positive so far.

All in all, it's been a good year for DRM opponents, as key big players, like Amazon, have entered the fray. Amazon's offering a whopping 20% referral fees to help promote their store - as a consumer, this sort of thing makes sense to me all around. There's a sample referral link to an album I've been enjoying lately over to the left. You can pick songs up by the track for the usual .99 cents each, or save almost six bucks by getting all 14 tracks for only 7.99. Cheap prices, no DRM, high bitrate (256), are pretty near my sweet spot as a customer. (Even better? Add a locker feature, so I can re-download tracks at any time, and make the files lossless.)