We hate it. You hate it. The only people in love with it seem to be record companies. And Nokia. Still, with the latest hacks putting paid to Comes With Music’s copy protection, and Amazon MP3 serving up DRM-free tunes on the cheap, we have to wonder: Will 2008 be the last year of DRM?

Even Apple’s rumoured to be knocking iTunes’ Fairplay protection system on the head in the very near future. Meanwhile, more stores than ever are shoveling unprotected MP3s into our pockets, and at higher quality too.

But what can be done to finally kick the backside of copy protection? Is it time record companies finally realised their customers aren’t criminals, and followed the mantra, “if you love something, let it go?”

Answers, rants and raves in the usual place below!

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  • Ben Sillis

    I blame Apple’s closed shop policy – Steve Jobs was insisting that DRM was dead two years ago but it still took him this long. While everyone’s busy downloading from iTunes alone, it encourages other foolish music stores to follow suit. Kudos to 7digital and Amazon for trying to drill some common sense into them.

  • Salvador

    1 year, 3 months, 19 days, 2 hours and 57 minutes. And good riddance.

  • http://www.lgblog.co.uk Chris at LG

    I think it’s tempting when looking back over time to see these kinds of changes as happening overnight but they rarely do. DRM is dying a slow death and if Apple do knock it on its head, that will be the tipping point. But these things take time.

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