Canada sounds off about DRM

Turns out Canada doesn’t like DRM either. An article in the National Post piles more frustration onto the massive heaps of bitterness facing the record companies who use digital rights management technology to limit copying of their CDs. Sony, of course, gets attacked for the rootkit mess that they have created. They aren’t alone, though – EMI is singled out for their copy-protection measures as well.

Retailers, in the article, point out that these steps are punishing those that actually pay for their music. The customers are frustrated by the inability to use the purchased music as they would like and the difficulty of adding the tunes to an iPod or other players than Windows Media Players. One retailer points out that people are commonly refusing to buy music that is copy-protected.

Some record execs aren’t sympathetic. “People have had the freedom to give 10 friends a copy of a disc. For anybody that’s used to doing that, all of a sudden they’re limited,” said Terry Millar, director of manufacturing at EMI Canada. “We’re going to get complaints. We know that people are used to a certain thing. The thing about it is that it’s not the right thing to be doing.”

Interestingly, though, not all record company folk are singing the same tune. “It’s backwards thinking. It’s protectionism,” said Terri McBride, president of Vancouver-based Nettwerk. “The average consumer who’s not tech-savvy is going to buy the CD, thinking that they can load it onto their IPod … They’re going to be royally pissed off. Why do you want to piss off the people who buy?”