Warner says no to copyright-free music

Cold water poured on Steve Jobs’ call for DRM-free music

Warner Music has hit out at Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ proposal to get rid of copyright protection on music downloads, claiming it is “without logic or merit”.

Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr, said there is no chance Warner is considering dropping Digital Rights Management (DRM) copyright protection measures on its downloads.

He was speaking at yesterday’s first quarter financials announcement, which saw Warner’s net income plummet by 74 per cent to $18m (£9.25m), from $69m. The only bright spot for Warner was digital music sales, with revenues up 45 per cent to $100m, against $69m for the same period in 2006.

“We advocate the continued use of [DRM] in the protection of our and our artists' intellectual property,” Bronfman said. “The notion that music does not deserve the same protections as software, television, films, video games, or other intellectual property, simply because there is an unprotected legacy product available in the physical world [the CD], is completely without logic or merit.”

Warner is one of the ‘big four’ music publishers, alongside Universal, EMI and Sony BMG. Earlier this week Jobs called for an end to DRM in an essay entitled ‘Thoughts on Music’. He said since DRM failed to prevent music piracy, it should be dumped.

The whole issue of DRM is set to get very interesting in the coming weeks as Apple has to renegotiate its music licensing deals for iTunes with Warner and the others.