FSF launches a denial-of-service attack on Apple's Genius Bars

At OSCON this year, MySQL's Brian Aker made this bold statement:

Microsoft is irrelevant....We're more worried about Apple.

Perhaps he was taking a cue from MySQL's Zack Urlocker, who has been buying Macs for family members, but I understand the sentiment. Microsoft still dominates the desktop, but the momentum is Apple's.

Perhaps this is why the Free Software Foundation, which wants to protect everyone's freedom (except, oddly, on the web), has gone on another Quixotic campaign to save the world from Apple's DRM (Digital Rights Management) by clogging its Genius Bars with freedom-loving developers asking questions about freedom and then logging Apple's non-free responses.

Here's how it works:

You can use Apple's helpful online booking system (no registration required) to reserve time slots at the Genius Bar. There are currently 217 Apple stores in seven countries, giving us plenty of slots to book. We want as many people as possible to book slots this Friday and Saturday. Why not book more than one? Having lots of slots booked will get Apple's attention and ensure that the Geniuses have done their homework.

The questions?

1. Why do all developers have to submit their applications to Apple before they can be loaded onto an iPhone?
2. Why does iTunes still contain so much DRM-laden music?
3. The iPhone 3G has GPS support. How can users be sure that the GPS cannot be used to track their position, without their permission?
4. In 'Thoughts on Music', Steve Jobs said, "it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in 'open' licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC".
5. Why can the iPhone 3G only be activated by Apple and AT&T?

The answer to just about every one of these questions is, "Because this is the only way to get the entertainment industry to agree to allow its content to be distributed as openly as it has with Apple, and because Apple wants to make sure it makes money." You don't have to visit a "genius" to get the answer. Nor do you have to block real customers with real questions from getting support at the Genius Bar to get answers.

As to the third question, no one cares where you go. Get over it.

The fourth question? It's not a question. At least put a question mark at the end to pretend.

Now here's a question for the Free Software Foundation: If you care so much about freedom, why have you completely overlooked the Internet? Have you heard of it? It's this big thing (Google has indexed a trillion web pages) that increasingly dominates our lives, yet you have been content to sit on the sidelines and maintain a foolish position that the only software freedom that matters is the software that sits on your PC.

I'd argue that the inverse is true. The software on my desktop arguably matters the least, in terms of freedom, compared to the server and cloud. And you, the inveterate freedom fighter, have completely fallen down the job of fighting for web freedom.

Instead of soiling your feet in Apple's shrines to proprietary software and hardware (aka "Apple Store"), why don't you instead demand that the web services we use remain open? Why not fight for open data guarantees? Why not, in other words, do something that affects more than my ability to listen to Radiohead on the Zune, and instead affects my ability to take years of email stored in Gmail and move it elsewhere, offline or online?

There are far better battles to fight. Stop wasting your time.

[mattflaschen]

Quixotic? Hardly. The FSF and their allies have already largely succeeded in ending DRM in music. Now, they are rightly moving on to other fields.

As for SaaS, you know very well they are neither ignoring the problem, nor jumping on the solution you prefer. See http://autonomo.us/2008/07/franklin-street-statement/

[rattyuk]

"The FSF and their allies have already largely succeeded in ending DRM in music. Now, they are rightly moving on to other fields.'

Hey, don't kid yourself... DRM removal has been the record companies last ditch attempt to take down iTunes... Not doing too well on that front either.

[Arthur Belle Dent]

I feel the exact same way about the OSI that you do about the FSF, so we can always guess each other's stance based on previous history.
I love how people like you love telling others what to do something with their own time.
Do I think this campaign will make a difference? No.
But if they are going to go through with this because they firmly believe in it, the more power to them.
Just because this endeavour might not be fruitful, it has no bearing on whether or not they should abandon it in favor of your web question which really does nothing but change the focus on what interests you..

So instead of wasting your time with content management why dont you concentrate on producing fonts. People love them and used them all the time.

Freedom is letting people do what they want and they believe in.


Anal retentive types who worry about how people waste their time havent heard about the web I guess. Lots of wasted time there. Make sure that stops. Gaming too. Lots of wasted time in tech, you have your work cut out.




This is identical to the cry we hear about needing less distros. Who are you to tell me that I cant work on my own distro because I want to do it, instead of joining an existing one?

[john55440]

Yup, now that the Mac's worldwide market share has skyrocketed all the way to 3%, Microsoft is clearly irrelevant. -lol

FSF are such a bunch of fools - in a variety of ways.

[iertry]

To put it simply; idiots. There are logical answers to all of the questions (accept four which isn't a question.
1. To ensure apps are virus/spam free and do not crash the phone
2. Because some labels won't let Apple provide DRM free music.
3. They can't know for certain but by buying the phone the agree to trust Apple. If they don't like it don't buy it. And who cares where joe bloggs is anyway.
4. If your going to go to the genius bar to ask questions, ask them don't just make irrelevant statements.
5. To try and stop people unlocking phones and also to try (although somewhat unsuccessfully) to make the activation process more robust. If it's done in store it will/should be done right. At home problems can arise and customers may get upset.

I don't even work in the genius bar and I can answer the questions!

I'll finish by saying once again; idiots.

[lmasanti]

quote:
"and because Apple wants to make sure it makes money."

The FSF could attack the Congress claiming to change the law that force Apple, as a public company, to seek revenues to its shareholders... a.k.a. "making money"!

[M C]

Stupidest. Protest. Ever.

Screwing Apple's customers doesn't help your cause.

Basically you're common script kiddies having a pout.

[tazmain]

Why can't they just focus on stuff that matters?

It would seem the FSF has got WAY too much time on their hands and can't figure out what's next... DRM? if that's your fight, you should just sit-down & shut-up.

[johnsu01]

Matt, I think you're probably aware of the FSF's work on the network service freedom issues, I'm not sure why you aren't acknowledging it. It's one of the highest priorities right now.

I would like to see some evidence for the claim that the media companies are requiring DRM of Apple. I see much evidence in the other direction -- lots of services (Amazon, Rhapsody, emusic...) offering DRM-free music from the very same labels. Also, Jobs as the largest individual shareholder in Disney, *is* a voice in the media companies. People repeat this claim endlessly, but the truth seems to be that it's Apple that wants the DRM and the corresponding lock-in with the iTunes store, because they profit from it. Even if they didn't want the DRM, as the manufacturers of the most prevalent portable music playing devices I think they'd have a little leverage on this question.

As for DRM being necessary to prevent malware and save the cell-phone network, that's just incorrect. Free software applications have been running just fine on multiple smartphone platforms for years. Also, following this logic all the way would mean that none of us should be able to install non-DRMed software on our own computers -- we're all connected to the internet, after all. The fact that some people might abuse their freedom isn't a reason to take it away from everyone in advance.

Also see http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=627011&cid=24351447.

[punterjoe]

Whatever my feelings on a subject, I always resist getting into it with "true believers" because they have an uncanny knack for turning any potential light into mere heat. Holy wars aren't always about theology. There are plenty of folks who seem to live for no other purpose than to stir things up & get a reaction from others. I won't name the groups, we all know them.
I'm sorry to see the Apple "Geniuses" become the latest target of these attention-craving crusaders. As usual, they'll probably wreck it for everyone else & all Genius supplicants will have to go through Cupertino for an audience - or something equally Orwellian. It will be a pyhrric victory, but that won't bother them one whit.
The saddest part is, I agree with their general premise, but like PETA, ActUp & others, their over-the-top tactics repel would be allies with less jihadist tendencies.

[carolax]

So this is why I can't get an appointment at the Genius Bar until late Sunday to have my Mac looked at. In the meantime, I can't do my weekend job, and my clients can't get their web sites updated. Turns out it's the fault of a bunch of geek Facists who pretend like thinking their way is freedom. Small minds come in all flavors, I guess.

[The_Decider]

Matt, your Apple cheerleader uniform is showing.

If you had any substance and didn't ignore reality, we might be able to take you seriously.

[sfdev]

My concern is what Apple is hiding and/or forcing on the user. First there was the Quicktime/iTunes update software that told us to install Safari. Now I find with the install of iTunes 7.7 there's this MobileMe software that magically appeared....

I'm concerned about Apple's lack of honesty/openness about what there software does or will do. If an organization (with support from the user community) can get a company to change its behaviour (bad or indifferent) toward its customers, does anyone see a problem here?

[totorototoro]

Embarrassing. FSF goes the route of PETA and other extremist groups, making their important cause a sidenote to their showboating and publicity *******.

[Thomas, David]

Once again, from every one

"Huh"? Scratching head. Talk about misguided. This makes the FSF seem more adolescent, and confused than anything else.

[Thomas, David]

By the way. Some of the logic that' being passed around here from ...

One persons sense of freedom is another persons place in an unemployment line.

Freedom, the word is bounced around, twisted, and used without thought. From the highest position in the office, to the "FSF". Talk about clueless.

[oneoclock]

As far as phone operating systems go, Symbian is far more restrictive than the iPhone. WIth Symbian you cannot install any apps without approval from the cell phone operator. Not all operators make drastic use of the lock down capabilities, but in some countries often all the operators do, so customers cannot simply sign up with a different operator. In some cases you cannot even view any photos on a Symbian phone unless the photos were either taken with the phone's camera or sent by MMS to the phone. If the photo is from any other source (for example received by email) then it cannot be viewed because it wasn't digitally signed by the network operator. Again some operators do not make use of this lock down feature of the Symbian OS, but some do.

Furthermore, not even Symbian developers can install apps without a certificate from Symbian on their own phones, not even for development and testing purposes. With the iPhone, at least anybody with some coding skills can download Apple's SDK and use it to build and install an application on their iPhone. No need to register with the Apple's App Store to do that. In other words, you have a last resort as you can always hire somebody with the skills to install something for you -- No such last resort with Symbian OS because even the Symbian developers are completely locked out unless they get a certificate which is costly and bureaucratic to obtain.

Yes, Apple's iPhone may be less open as it might be, but the Symbian OS is far far worse. How come nobody complained about that in all those years? I couldn't even do address syncing between my computer and the Symbian phone I had because the operator had disabled the feature. I never saw anybody complain about this and I was called names when I questioned the sense of disabling address synchronising and the fact that there was nothing I could do (other than getting rid of the Symbian phone and buy something else, which I finally did).

All of a sudden, Apple comes along with a far less restrictive system than Symbian's, and everybody is complaining about Apple but still nobody ever complains about Symbian. Is that hypocrisy or is Symbian also all of a sudden irrelevant?

[t26l]

I think the fourth question /is/ a question, as there's more than just the firststatement. Full text from defectivebydesign.org:

#4

In 'Thoughts on Music', Steve Jobs said, "it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in 'open' licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC".

If Jobs really wants to see open formats, why doesn't the iPhone play Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora video and FLAC? These formats require no licensing costs, and are not encumbered by patents. How does Apple plan to support these formats in the future? Will Apple approve applications for the App Store that support these formats?

[AppleSuxLeo]

People actually use iTunes ? Its so yesterday. People in the know are flocking to AmazonMP3.
Higher bit-rate , no DRM , and lower cost. It`s a win-win-win !

[tomvons]

The FSF is becoming increasingly delusional.