In a comment, Dave Sprogis asks about what happens to iTunes tracks that people have already purchased now that Apple has dropped its FairPlay DRM? In addition to lots of freeware software for stripping out FairPlay DRM available on the Internet, Apple will remove it for a fee (says Tom's Hardware blog)
And what about current tracks that customers have already purchased? Yes, you can have DRM removed from them as well, but this too will cost you money. iTunes will offer the ability for its customers to upgrade their current library at a cost of 30 cents per song, for currently qualifying songs – 60 cents per qualifying video.
That being said, it is hard not to think that this could be a "snatch and grab" cash cow for bad times. The way the economy is right now, everyone is looking for fast money. iTunes has been extremely successful ever since its conception, so what sparked the DRM-Free movement? Obviously not to make customers more happy, because the numbers alone say that kind of movement isn’t really required at this point in time. But the economy says otherwise. Something to think about? Maybe.
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