Eddy Cue blames record labels for craptastic iTunes DRM

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itunes

Apple was forced by major record labels to implement digital rights management technology in iTunes, according to testimony in an ongoing class-action lawsuit that accuses Cupertino of stifling competition with competing music services.

Apple contemplated licensing its DRM, called FairPlay, to other companies, “but we couldn’t find a way to do that and have it work reliably,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services.

“Cue argued that Apple abhorred DRM, but had to implement it in order to broker deals with record labels that collectively controlled 80 percent of the music market,” reports The Verge.

Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller, Cue and even Steve Jobs (via old emails and videotaped deposition) are star witnesses in the weeklong trial, which will determine whether Apple will have to pay at least $350 million in damages for blocking competitors from working with the iPod and iTunes.

Along with yesterday’s revelation that Apple deleted music off iPods from rival music services, DRM used during the early days of iTunes is one of the reasons the company has been dragged into court.

“Steve [Jobs] was mighty upset with me and the team whenever we got hacked,” said Cue. “If a hack happened, we had to remedy that hack within a certain time period or they [the record labels] would remove all their music from the store.”

Apple still uses FairPlay encryption, but consumers haven’t had to deal with it in music for years. Music is protected from hackers by FairPlay while on Apple’s servers, but the DRM is stripped out upon downloading. Apps and e-books still include FairPlay when downloaded.

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