You can't duplicate a vinyl either.
Do you remember when it used to say "Home taping is killing music" on the inner sleeve? Of course, they were wrong about that. The industry probably did more to kill music by re-issuing all those LPs on CD, without, in many cases, a cent of royalty to the artists (contracts paid royalties on the vinyl; they excluded, often, any future release on a different media).
How music has survived the record industry would appear to be the big mystery!
Now they have thought of a new way to cut their costs to the minimum,
and, no doubt, will be working on that DRM (which will be cracked, of course).
Here's something else that
We should worry about. Feeling an irrestistable urge for a certain piece of classical music, and finding my vinyl copy scratched to hell, the possibility of buying it on line occurred to me. I thought I'd start at the site of a European label well known for its classical selection, and yes, CD-quality downloads were available (at almost the same price as a CD), so, with tongue hanging out, and bank card in hand, I proceeded to the checkout.
Digital distribution is not available in your territory.
Well, like it or not, our country has a bad name for copyright abuse --- and the innocent have to suffer along with the guilty (who will be using proxy servers, etc, etc, so the company's stupid restriction won't even work).
This is going to be a real worry to serious music lovers in this and a number of other countries.
I got my music. Free. Yah-Boo-Sucks to you, Mr Record Label. I
wanted to give you my money.