You can buy that tune, but you don't own it

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It had to happen some day I suppose. I finally had to look my 11-year-old daughter in the eye and have the talk. You know, the one every father dreads having. Yes, that one.The one about digital rights management.And since I have seven kids left at home I will be having this talk over and over again.I know, it is hard to do but some time we all have to explain why the Hannah Montana song I bought on iTunes last year for some iPod won't play on the Zune you got this year for Christmas. I know, I know, it doesn't make sense to me, either.Go blame your aunt who runs a movie studio, honey, I am just an IT clown.What I really can't explain well, even to my children, is that even though we paid 99 cents for Hannah Montana a year ago (and she is so worth it, believe me, because with Hannah, you get the best of both worlds) we don't actually own her song. We have actually leased the use of the song for certain devices for a certain amount of time, which I guess is the life of the device or the hard drive or Apple's I-Tunes store.Which is how the following exchange happened:Me: "Honey, we don't own that song."Her: "I thought you paid for it and downloaded it?"Me: "I did."Her: "But we don't own it?"Me: "No, but I can use it."Her: "Okay, put it on here."Me: "Hannah doesn't like your music player."Or something like that.Digital Rights Management has got to go if for no other reason than it is driving honest people crazy.I know, everyone is robbing everyone blind, the Hollywood writers are on strike because they want a share of the online profits, China is ripping everyone off, I get it. I am a writer. I understand. However, when I pony up and pay a buck for a song I want the song. I want to be able to put the song on whatever device I feel like for my own personal use and not have to explain to a doe-eyed child about encryption and camcorders in movie theaters ever again.I am willing to pay for your content. Just don't drive me insane after I pay for it. If I have 8 children do I need to buy eight copies of Hannah Montana? Does she need that much money?The future of music is Radiohead. This group just put out their latest album free online, one critics say is one of the 10 best albums of 2007. Go get it. Download it. Keep it. If you like it pay for it. If you don't, delete it. Pay what you think it's worth. No record company, no distribution deal, no nothing. Of course, this helps because they are already famous. But surely there has to be a middle ground here between driving me insane with encrypting songs that I have bought and paid for (that I could have easily found online and stole) and giving away the farm for free.(James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair company, and a computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim(at)cyberdads.com.)