Nobody likes DRM, including attorneys for Microsoft, Real

At this week's Digital Music Forum, lawyers managing digital rights for Microsoft's Zune music download site and RealNetworks' Rhapsody said that they too believe digital rights management to be more of a headache than an asset.

NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Few would argue that consumers truly like dealing with digital rights management. But attorneys for big music download sites like Microsoft's Zunes and RealNetworks' Rhapsody aren't all that thrilled with managing digital rights, either.

While that might have come as a surprise, this sentiment turned out to be the main theme emerging from a panel session called "Digital Rights and Clearances for Music" at this week's Digital Music Forum. Musicians, after all, want to make money from their work -- and a lot of other people are interested in some of the action, too, including record labels, music publishing companies, and Web sites.

But at this point, the legal underpinnings behind DRM are a mass of complexities raising many still unanswered questions, according to attorney Robert Driscoll, a partner in Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP.

Driscoll, who moderated the session, explained that attorneys in the digital rights space deal with contracts that "clear [content] for use both online and for other purposes."

But many of the existing documents are characterized by "a lack of adaptability," he added. Beyond that, labels and artists come up with contract "deals that don't work," demanding "advances that are too big."

In response to questioning from Driscoll, Julie Florida, an attorney in legal and corporate affairs at Microsoft, said she thinks Microsoft is doing "a pretty good job" of managing the ins and outs of digital rights on its relatively new Zune Marketplace site.

Microsoft's Florida pointed out that unlike Rhapsody, which has "established procedures" already in place, Microsoft had to start from scratch with digital rights when entering the music download business a year ago, after many years as a software vendor only.

But Cecily Mak, senior counsel in legal affairs at RealNetworks, contended that it's so easy matter to manage rights at Rhapsody, either.

Rhapsody is now juggling digital rights for "40 major record labels, 400 indie record labels, 40 major publishers, and hundreds of indie publishers," according to Mak.

Is it any wonder, then, that Web sites such as Zunes and Appel's iTunes now offer some music downloads on a non-DRM basis, free of charge?