Sony admits their attempt to lock us in a box failed: DRM

Sony’s non mp3 support in it’s portable audio devices was a mistake, they now admit. Yuri Kageyama:

Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said he and other Sony employees had been frustrated for years with management’s reluctance to introduce products like Apple’s iPod, mainly because the Sony had music and movie units that were worried about content rights.

But Sony’s divisions were finally beginning to work together and share a common agenda, Mr Kutaragi said at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo.

Well, duh. Most of these DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) schemes will fail. Slashdot discussion.

DRM is not binary

Tristan Louis takes a useful look at DRM (digital rights/restrictions management):

What I am trying to highlight is that while proponents and opponents of DRM solutions both see the world in black and white, they may want to start a dialogue and realize that there’s a lot of gray areas out there.

Via Doc Searls.