DRM for music is dead. Long live DRM for software and apps!

DRM is dead!  Long live copy-protection-free content!  That was the sentiment back in January at MacWorld ’09, where Apple announced that every single one of its ten million music tracks will lose the dreaded copy protection technology.  Not long after that, I speculated that DRM for video content will also go away, but not in the same way as music DRM did.  All that brings me to ask: how about DRM for applications and software?Probably the single most popular DRM scheme for software applications is the one that’s distributed with applications sold by Apple in the iTunes App store.  Apple recently announced that worldwide downloads from the store have surpassed 100 million apps.  While that doesn’t necessarily mean that 100 million separate apps were purchased, it does prove the app store to be very popular, seeing as it has only been roughly eight months since its launch in the summer of 2008.

But the real question is whether there is a need for DRM that’s attached to applications to go away.  In other words, does DRM tied to applications negatively impact the user?  If so, is the amount of negative impact enough to cause a shift away from the technology and release applications as DRM-free?

The same arguments apply for DRM of applications as for DRM of music:

• The user is limited and can be affected by
• Frequent glitches and bugs in the DRM system, which leads to
• Users who purchased the software legally being affected negatively, whereas
• Users who pirated the software not being affected at all, which
• Does not encourage the act of legally purchasing digital content (such as software or music)

On the other hand, software sharing might be rampant if it weren’t for the existence of copy protection.  Think about how many copies of the infamous “fart app” would be passed around on college campuses and in school classrooms if it weren’t for DRM of the apps purchased from the iTunes App Store.

What it all comes down to is the following: as was done with DRM of music, users need to actively discuss this topic.  Until users learn that software isn’t just bits of data (which it is), but rather bits of data that were made by someone who put time, effort, and investment to let others enjoy said bits, software pirating will continue; and copy-protecting software will be necessary.

I though I should also mention that there is another force acting on the topic: web apps.  Web apps will require users to obtain (and pay for) their own legal uses of the software/webware.  So perhaps as we move more and more toward a world where software is used primarily on the web (rather then on the desktop), software piracy will naturally decrease.

What do you think?

–Another TechNest, is in the tree!

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Posted in DRM, Decisions