I Hate DRM

Are there any Government regulates the market price of MP3 music in Our Planet? I work at ‘Soribada’, Korea’s #1 P2P Music service. We are now serving legally as Korea’s copyright law changed. We cleared all kinds of legal issue with copyright holders (Except only S wirless carrier and their related companies). Korean digital music market is keep evolving for bright future after the hard work on complicated matters. But Korean Government is forcing to fix the retail price of digital music with their own measure. Korean Government is forcing to use DRM. The Greatest things on recommended DRM are It is not compatible DRM. It works only specified device, like ‘iPod’ . It is monthly rental DRM. Korean Government is forcing their people to use inconvenient and unfair tool for digital music. We all know the digital music is the most powerful killer contents for the next step of business. We all know the power of digital music contents. Under are the brief summary of what Korean Government hope to happen in Korea. What will happen when Korean Government and S WIRELESS CARRIER win? Retail price of digital music service will change as follow, Current maket price of wireless carrier S*T, K*F, L*T is 5,000KRW and will change to 4,080KRW. Current market price of Big Group company *net is 10,000KRW and will change to 5,100KRW. Soribada's membership price will change to 6,000KRW from 4,000KRW. ** What is your choice since they all have same list of music? Won’t you go for the low price? Can’t you see clearly what Korean Government and S wirless carrier want to do? What will happen with the table of new price set.  Only giant player will survive. - S WIRELESS CARRIER is a huge wireless carrier. Once the market is in their hand, no one knows what will happen. Korean fair trade commission already claimed S WIRELESS CARRIER for the use of non-compatible DRM, but fair trade commission lost their claim at Korean court.  Users of digital music must buy giant player’s device and/or their services. - Even I have to buy music from S WIRELESS CARRIER if I want to listen through my mobile phone. (It is happening now) - Once I buy, I can’t use at other devices even with my own device.  S WIRELESS CARRIER and Korean Government will smile - It is all about money for them. S WIRELESS CARRIER’S mobile phone sales will increase. - No other service will appear in Korean market. This is what is happening in Korea. I ask YOU. Are there any other government that is forcing and fixing the retail price of digital music or any other digital contents? If there is, Please let me know. I am really wonder…… Am I right?

I'm not sure if there are other governments that are "forcing" regulation on music retailers.  Not in the US anyway.  I know that entertainment governance bodies like the RIAA and the MPAA put a ton of pressure on the government to do what they want.  They lobby and spend millions "bribing" our politicians.  But seeing as we are a capitalistic country, directly regulating music sale prices would be a bit strange...although our government regulates a lot of other things that are strange as well.

As far as DRM goes, we are now seeing almost every online music retailer dropping DRM; Apple, Amazon, Yahoo, etc. because they know it's bad for sales.  I've even seen reports from companies in other countries where their DRM-free tunes sell 4 times as much as their DRM crippled tracks.  It's taken a good 4 to 5 years for the music companies to realize this in my country.  Maybe that same thing will happen with your country.

One thing is for certain, if we as consumers don't let our voice be heard, nothing will happen.  So keep making noise.