DRM Hurts In More Ways Than One

While some music-industry execs are slowly realizing the downside of DRM, a new report says there's a downside for consumers: tests found that Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM hurts MP3 players' battery life by up to 25%, while iPod users get 8% more play time listening to unprotected files than ones protected with Apple's FairPlay DRM. So in addition to being a general nuisance, copy-protection also helps users get less out of their MP3 players -- and don't forget how it doesn't help artists either -- yet record labels continue to somehow believe it's a necessity.