The Recording Industry Association of America has responded to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s suggestion to remove piracy measures from digital music - saying Apple should instead open up its DRM technology to its competitors.

Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the RIAA, said the move would allow iTunes competitors to sell music using the same digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple does, the AP reports. Apple developed its own version of DRM, called FairPlay, an anti-piracy measure that the major music labels demanded from Apple, in exchange for the labels’ agreeing to license their catalogs to Apple for sale via iTunes.

Jobs suggested on Apple’s website on Tuesday that the use of DRM not only isn’t working but also may be constricting growth of the sale of digital music as a whole - a view that many analysts agree with.

“Digital music has entered the mainstream,” said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media Leigh. “The restrictions (that the labels) require Apple and others to carry are preventing the market from developing to its full potential - it’s retarding the growth.”

Source: MarketingVox

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