The majors well feel that there is a deadlock

Jean-Noël Reinhardt, the DRM issue is central to the future development of the online music market. He also denounced the ambivalent behaviour of certain majors of the disc, favouring, in his view, proprietary systems.

Are the DRM on music files sold online a brake on the growth of the online music market

The principle is not in itself an evil, but existing DRM are neither efficient nor compatible. Lack of system that penalizes not consumers, and thus impeding the development of the market, we recommend to suspend. Overall, they prevent today that a user who purchases the music on the platform of choice may transfer it to the player of his choice. Today, when you buy a title on VirginMega and Fnacmusic, you have maximum 20 of players that can read. It is an environmentally friendly consumer of the work of the artists will first pay for a song, and then, it may not even the transfer on the player of his choice! DRM have clearly failed to prevent piracy since more than 95 of online music downloads are illegal. Today, the DRM system is even a bonus to piracy: there is a great oxymoron.

What should be done to make interoperability a reality

Can create interoperability in three ways: the first is to require the industry to make all their machines interoperable, but it is a pious wish. The second is to require all owners of DRM to terminate employment with platforms. It is what VirginMega requested by entering the Council of the competition two years ago, but we have failed. We get a referral as soon as we will be allowed. Finally, the third is to remove the DRM. We are not against DRM, but for freedom restored to the consumer to buy and consume as he wants. Delete them is therefore the only realistic solution to create interoperability. In this context, it is urgent that the authority of regulation of technical means provided by the Copyright Act, is put in place so that we can seize the. As long as it continues to do nothing, it is the beautiful part to hackers.

Some independent producers appear ready to sell music without DRM. Is this the case in the majors, which represent the major part of your income

The majors have not told us be ready to take this step in the short term, and we regret. So far, we have opened the debate at France and we hope reflections will evolve rapidly. Our position has encountered a large echo and a large number of independent producers are in phase with it. And within the SNEP (the Union of producers, Editor's note), a large number of people are in phase. The majors well feel that there is a deadlock. In 2007, some could join our position in France as international. I remember that some of them propose today the music without DRM on USB keys that they sell in stores! It is time to be consistent. Some producers imagine a system in which they are funded by the manufacturers of music players, such as Universal Music with Zune. The producers seem to favour ecosystem of hardware and software manufacturers, allowing them to subsidize. The limit, one wonders, including reading the statements by Doug Morris, Universal Music pattern, if their interest is not to prevent the construction of a legal market for download by preferring receive indirect subsidies of all hardware and software manufacturers. I denounce this drift.