Yahoo! Music To Be DRM-Free For Xmas?

Yahoo!’s Dave Goldman has predicted that Yahoo!’s music store will be selling DRM-free MP3s by Christmas 2007, acknowledging the burgeoning movement amongst the digital download world to abandon rights protection on music sold on the Internet.

“The labels understand that DRM has to go,” Goldman said to USA Today, “It’s nothing but a tax on digital consumers. There’s good momentum behind DRM going away.” This is on the heels of the news that EMI, one of the “big 4” major labels, is considering dumping the restrictive technology altogether, and in the aftermath of an essay by Apple’s Steve Jobs addressing the real obstacles DRM presents to those who just want to listen to music.

Will it happen? It’s looking that way, but the RIAA will likely have something to say about it, but with the major labels aligned with the users, will anyone really care?

EMI in talks to dump copy protection [USA Today]