DRM: the state of disrpair

A lot of us probably own an iPod or other music device, I own 2 iPods and a Zune for instance, so we probably know a bit about DRM. Downloading music from iTunes is an easy task, but if you lose that music from a crashed system or other tragedy, you'll have to jump through some hoops to get that music downloaded again, if at all. It's a pain in the ass. Not to mention the music from iTunes won't work on my Zune and vice versa. In order to do that I would have to burn the music to a CD, and then rip it back to my computer in .mp3. Why do we have DRM? Well, record companies seem to think it increases profits. I'm not so sure that holds any weight though.

To get around DRM for instance I just by CD's. Do you like CD's? j/k. I can rip CD's to my hard drive in .mp3 format and transfer it to my iPod or my Zune with no trouble at all. That also gives me the disc itself for a back up. So why do I have to jump through all of these hoops when it comes to downloaded music? It doesn't make sense to me. Luckily the fight to get rid of DRM is on. The first shot being fired by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Check out this article on engadget. It's a good read. Feel free to post your comments on DRM or the article.