Dr. Dre, The Edge, Sheryl Crow, Toby Keith, and Alicia Keys, as well as Jim Iovine (Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman) and other music industry executives, appeared this past Thursday with Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina at this year's Consumer Electronics Show to show industry support for HP's plans to include strict Digital Rights Management software into all new products. This would presumably include their newly announced HP-branded iPod. Fiorina cited reasons including protecting the artists and a crackdown on piracy, as well as a trend she called "Kazaa's Law", which states, in her words, "Our sense of right and wrong doesn't evolve as fast as our technology; just because we can do something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do." She then discussed upcoming plans to create strong copy-protection in every future product line.
These new measures are intended to prevent copying any part of all copy-protected media when using these devices. A recent BBC article discusses the implications of this technology: normally valid uses under Fair Use guidelines -- like sampling for personal use and making mix CDs -- become impossible under these new restrictions.
It will be interesting to see what impact Fiorina's announcement has on HP's sales, especially if other consumer electronics groups do not adopt the same strategy. If HP's competitors continue to allow their customers to interact with music as they always have, then this policy could initially drive consumers away from HP, thus complicating HP's incipient foray into the realm of consumer audio/video.
HP's risk would be mitigated, of course, if the recording companies themselves were to begin manufacturing CDs that require DRM-enabled players. However, past initiatives in this area have met with stiff legal and consumer resistance. Thus the RIAA appears to be pushing for the producers of consumer electronic devices to incorporate the copy protection techniques, as seen in the announcements by Fiorina, Microsoft's DRM initiative, and software such as Apple's iTunes Music Store.
CNET has an article about HP at CES 2004, along with approximately 4 minutes of video of Fiorina's presentation.