Skeptics line up about music download comments from Apple's CEO

When Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs said "let's get rid of Digital Rights Management" recently, some in the music industry stated their displeasure with that comment, as they see DRM the only way to protect the intellectual property of musicians. On the other hand, it severely stifles consumer choice -- digital music players from here won't work with music download services from there. The non-operability of different music download services on the different music players combined with the phenomenal success of the iPod is extremely frustrating.

But the iPod's popularity may have peaked, hence the reason for Jobs' letter to the industry. The thinking may be something along these lines: open up your music and we'll sell it all for you and we'll make up for all those lost CD sales. The "second act" of the iPod is in the planning stages right about now -- and why not non-protected music files?

Some are a little puzzled by Jobs' stance here. He could license his FairPlay DRM to other music-player companies -- giving the ability to play Apple-purchased music on any digital music player. That won't happen of course, as it would break down the iTunes wall. But with the estimate of only 3% of songs on all iPods having DRM in them (meaning they were purchased from the iTunes music store), is this a new open market for Apple should it convince music studios to drop the copy protection requirements on music downloads?