Is it possible to download free music and create a mess? Yes, indeed and it is all due to an obstinate little acronym known in the music biz as DRM. DRM, for those of you who are newbies in the music biz parlance, means digital rights management. And DRM happens to be a double-bladed sword that will dictate how you download free music without a mess or with a big splashy mess that can leave you bankrupt.



DRM means that the original creators and owners of a piece of digital data (like a music file) have the rights to restrict access to and ownership over their original product. People who believe in DRM say that this helps artists benefit from a continuous revenue stream due to sales of their original product over the years. This sounds fair, doesn't it? Ah, but there are ironically people who don't believe in DRM. These devil's advocates believe that DRM stands in the way of improving the level of competition in the music industry and helping the public benefit from increased open access to copyrighted music.

How can you then download free music without a mess? That is the sticky part of the dilemma – at the rate data copying technologies are being advanced, promoted and disseminated to the public, it is becoming harder and harder for the original creators and owners of copyrighted music to exert control over who can get ownership over their original product. And if these original creators and owners cannot control access they also cannot control their profits.

Next question then is: do these original creators and owners of original copyrighted material have any right to more royalties over their original music creations when more people acquire more copies of the original products? DRM advocates say yes of course, that is the whole point of having rights over your original creation in the first place. DRM opponents say no, because it does not create a level playing field and makes some people (ie. the artists and the music labels) richer in the process. By rights, the DRM opponents say, such rich people should not get richer from future sales of their own products.

As you can see, the problem hinges on perception. From the perception of an artist who slaved for years to perfect his skills in music so he can come up with a great product, he has every right in the world to benefit from continuous sales of his music file through the years from anyone who cares to use that music in any form whatsoever. From the perception of a music label, the music company has the right to profit from the distribution of that music product in agreement with the original owner (the artist) because it took a risk by opting to distribute the music product for the artist. But, from the perception of a music-hungry public that wants free music (like getting to eat its cake yet enjoy it forever anyway), these artists and music labels have no rights to their music product which only "oppress the poor public."

As you can see, it is very hard to download free music without a mess. It makes more ethical sense to simply pay for the CD or music download then take good care of your purchase for the rest of your life. That is what ethical business is all about. If you do intend to download free music without a mess, it better be from the authorized source of the music label and the original artist. Otherwise, it is better not to try to download free music without a mess.