As the big players begin to voice their opinion on the DRM situation, we're seeing many people come out directly for and directly against these technologies. On the pro-DRM side we have companies like Sony, Warner, Microsoft and the RIAA. On the anti-DRM side we have Apple (or at least Steve Jobs), EMI and now Yahoo. The head of Yahoo Music, Mr. Dave Goldberg, has lashed out at Microsoft's DRM and is now urging labels to abandon the system. The founder and CEO of SanDisk, Eli Harari, also expressed disappointment with certain DRM systems:
"Proprietary systems aren't acceptable to consumers. In recent months, there has been a rising chorus of complaints in Europe about the anti-competitive nature of closed formats that tie music purchased from one company to that company's devices, and tie that company's devices to its music service."
While we all can conjure up scenarios of a world pitched into two camps, one of liberated music and one of big-brother knows best, the end result of this will probably lie somewhere in the middle. There's no questioning that DRM as a whole is a crippled system, and there's no doubt that companies like the RIAA will never let go of their death grip on the industry. That being said, hopefully those big players offering their support for or against it will spur cooperation among the industry to find a better solution to piracy.