A report from last week brought to AppleInsider's attention by French technology site ElectronLibre asserts that it's now "clear" Apple will spark new interest in its music store by removing DRM from tracks published by Sony, Universal and Warner on December 9th.
The site doesn't point to specific sources but is careful to note that Apple is moving cautiously on the matter following difficult negotiations that allegedly had the labels hoping to negotiate what EMI had done for the launch of iTunes Plus in 2007, when it successfully negotiated prices higher before ultimately agreeing to reduce the price to Apple's standard 99 cents. Labels had also been hoping to switch from a monthly reporting of iTunes sales stats to live data, the earlier story suggests.
Talks between Apple and the remaining three labels may have been corroborated by a previous CNet story which also mentioned ongoing discussions that would let Apple switch to music without FairPlay restrictions.
Shoppers themselves have also noticed songs briefly selling unprotected that weren't either from EMI or independents.
More recently, the same site also believes Apple will quickly follow up the move with a promo campaign nicknamed the "12 Days of iTunes" that will let shoppers in France, Germany and the UK download an "unlimited" amount of content just after Christmas.
Read the full story over at AppleInsider.
We don't know about you but if this comes to pass tomorrow it'll make us very, very happy. DRM, even Apple's Fair Play, is onerous and completely unnecessary for the vast amount of people. Success stories like Apple's iTunes Music store show that when given the opportunity, most people are very willing to buy music legally and won't share/pirate digital content as the RIAA and the music industry would have us think. Sure, there will be those that do but treating the vast majority of honest people like thieves and criminals has been a slap to our collective face and no doubt contributed to the slide in sales for the big labels.
This of course is a rumor and should be viewed as such. Luckily, unlike most Apple rumors, we won't have to wait long to find out if it's true.
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