Downbound DRM Train

It seems everyone has an opinion on how the Music Industry should solve the problem of eroding CD sales and the fact that online sales of digital files are not filling the revenue gap this is creating.  I've read several articles in the past week on the subject, including excerpts from a few blogs on the topic.  Perhaps the most interesting was the blog of Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban who suggests the way to solve the problem is to make the purchase of music as ubiquitous as buying Starbucks coffee by putting kiosks in every location one can imagine to give consumers access to digital downloads anytime, anywhere.  This might be an element of a broader solution but it doesn't solve the problem of "social" ripping or burning of CDs among friends.  The NY Times article by Jeff Leeds (The Plunge of CD Sales Shakes up Big Labels, May 28, 2007) offered research performed by the NPD Group indicating that social ripping accounted for 37% of all music consumption, even more than file sharing.  Thus, while placing kiosks in every possible location may increase consumer opportunities to purchase digital media, this will not solve the issue created by social ripping unless the CD, as a form factor, is either eliminated or coded in some way to prevent distribution to devices not owned by the buyer.  This harkens back to an earlier post where I discussed the concept of licensing the content to a USER, not a device, for playback only on devices authenticated as owned by the same person who purchased the digital file.  State DMVs have massive, secure, databases of user licenses, and banks have massive, secure (I hope!) databases of user information linked to credit and debit cards.  Why couldn't a massive, secure, database of consumer digital certficates, watermarks or some other identifying monikor be feasible?  This system would work in concert with the kiosk concept offered by Mr. Cuban.  The Labels realize going completely free of some method of tracking purchase and use by each consumer is suicide for the their existing business model.

The Labels have had a long time to digest this issue and seek alternatives.  Unfortunately most of the executives of these companies are goaled on short term financial performance and have taken a short term approach to solving the problem, usually "dropping" a new CD by one of their hot artists to meet quarterly targets and objectives.  All the while a core revenue source, the sale of CDs, has eroded as the consumption of music by other means has risen.  If you're at a Label fighting this battle, don't it feel like you're riding, on a downbound train?