Digital Music and Copyright

Arango, Tim. "Despite iTunes Accord, Music Labels Still Fret." New York Times 2 February 2009: B1+.

Last summer, I read Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture, which is a fascinating book about how copyright law has changed over time to product the owners of creative work while sacrificing the production of new creative works. Ever since, I have been tracking the copyright battles within digital music. Arango writes about the agreement signed 6 January 2009 between Apple and its iTunes division and Sony Music, which allowed Sony to charge more for more popular tunes while Sony "gave up their demand for copyright protection (called digital rights management)" (B1). Although the agreement was signed, considerable tension still exists. The way Arango describes it, the music companies are very nervous because they recognize Apple's power in this matter, since Apple remains the main market for digital music. For futurists in the group, Arango claims that "[m]any executives [. . .] believe the future of music buying isover the mobile phone, not from buying individual songs but by paying a monthly subscription fee to hear vast database of music" (B4).