PyMusique and iTunes Music Store: Problem or Opportunity?

"The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact."
-Thomas Huxley

In case you hadn't heard, PyMusique is causing quite a stir in the online music world. An email from the author "DVD" Jon Johansen states:

PyMusique is an interface to the iTunes Music Store that lets you preview songs, sign up for an account and buy songs. It is somewhat interesting from a DMCA/EUCD perspective. The iTunes Music Store actually sells songs without DRM. While iTunes adds DRM to your purchases, PyMusique does not. Another difference is that signing up for an account using PyMusique does not require you to sign/click away any of your rights.

The application is written in Python and can be compiled in to versions for Windows, OS X, Linux or any other OS that has a good version for Python available to it. Which opens up a couple of interesting issues.

First of all, the combination of this software and the recently cracked AAC codec means that Linux users can now buy and play music from the iTunes store. The "bits just want to be free" idealist in me thinks that's a great thing. I think that DRM (digital rights management) usually fails to make the content it's applied to safer from piracy by tech-savvy users and (worse) ends up simply inconveniencing everyone else. The other downside is that DRM usually only works on platforms with compatible software written for it. That usually means Windows and (maybe) Macintosh. Every other OS gets left out in the cold. Open (or at least common) standards are what level the playing field between established platforms and new-comers like Linux and the revitalized Amiga. It seems unfair that an entire market of users is left with no legal means of participating in a sphere of activity simply because nobody has written a software babysitter for the files they'd like to use.

Second of all, as a part time Mac user, the whole thing leaves me a bit concerned. The iPod and the iTMS are a big part of Apple's current success in the market right now and I don't think the RIAA is going to look favorably on the DRM being stripped out of the music files it's members have sanctioned Apple to sell online. Apple has already had to face pressure from the music industry to raise the prices of the songs it sells from the nice round $.99 to $1.29 or more. In the face of the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) campaign from the "new" Napster's rent-your-music-by-the-month ads, having iTMS DRM cracked, patched a day later and cracked again isn't going to help the online music portion of its business. If Apple's online music business is hurt, a chunk of its profitability and its ability to tie-in to its core computer business gets hurt along with it. As a fan of the only non-Microsoft platform I can get major applications for, this worries me.

There is one small light at the end of this tunnel, and it doesn't hinge on Apple closing every DRM loop-hole that DVD Jon could exploit. All that would take is adding DRM to the files before the user downloads them. No, the sliver of hope I'm wishing on is that this "problem" will actually cause a spike in iTMS sales. What PyMusic takes out of the equation is DRM, not paying for the music. The debacle has certainly caused lots of publicity for both PyMusique and iTMS. What if Linux users came out in droves to purchase music before Apple permanently closes the loop-hole? What if freedom-loving Mac and Windows users did the same? Apple, and by extension its RIAA partners, would certainly profit from all of this activity. Maybe, just maybe, this would be another economic vote against DRM by the consumer.

It's certainly a beautiful hypothesis... only time will tell if it's slain by an ugly fact.