- Related Stories
-
France backs down on iTunes DRM stance
May 2, 2006 -
Apple, labels stick with 99 cents per iTunes song
May 1, 2006 -
Apple calls French law 'state-sponsored piracy'
March 22, 2006 -
Don't blare that MP3 player, researchers warn
March 14, 2006 -
Apple, Sony sued over DRM in France
February 14, 2005 -
iTunes finally arrives in Europe
June 15, 2004
Agencies want restrictions removed that prevent iTunes from being played on devices made by other companies.
The New York Times
The story "Apple faces fresh legal attacks in Europe" published June 9, 2006 at 7:28 AM is no longer available on CNET News.
Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.
restrictions, but rather forcing Apple to license the code.
Removing restrictions defeats the entire purpose for the
encryption, waters down the reason content providers use the
service, and is contrary to the very reason iTMS/iTunes/iPod
were created in the first place.
What is very interesting is this is a market that only ONE
company has done right so far, maybe this latest development is
evidence of some sort of consensus of defeat. I doubt that, I
think it's more an attempt to dilute one of the successful factors
of Apples solution to make way for others. In other words, if
you can't compete with ideas, and products, then find some
legal maneuver to do it for you.
The whole point of it all is not DRM, On-line Services, or even
the iPod ... the point is, it simply works, and THAT is why it has
dominance. While a littany of developers, and vendors have
tried, they simply DO NOT GET IT.
Further, they are the most liberal in the terms of their Digital Rights Management (DRM). You can burn your song up to 7 times (it can be bypassed easily), play it on 5 machines (Windows or Macs), and play it unlimited number of times on your iPod.
What the competition gives you? yeah, you can play it on your Windows machines (sorry Mac people, you're not allowed to play DRM music), and if you purchased the song on your Notebook, you cannot even move it to your Desktop PC and play it! you can burn it, only once (most of the times, depends on the recording label), and if your MP3 player doesn't support MS DRM, you're screwed.
Looking at the situation, Apple shows a MUCH better offer then what any other MS based DRM offer has to offer, and by looking at the numbers, Apple wins clearly. People buy IPods more then ever and simply refuse to buy the MS based players. Free market powers, anyone heard about it?
My guess is this hypocrisy comes directly from Microsoft HQ and their IHV partners. You cannot win your biggest competitors, so you go cry fawl to the nearest political members/party. You really want songs to be transferred easily between players? Kill the DRM! Consumers doesn't like the way MS treats them (as potential theives) so they don't buy their crap, even with their latest co-operation with MTV (URGE).
Let's see. A company with 8 billions dollars cash in the bank. A
company whose market value exceeds that of Dell recently. A
company whose influence is felt across an entire industry. A
company who posts double-digit profits. A company like Apple
is not "extremely" successful because of market share? What
business courses has the poster taken recently?
You know, there are more cockroaches in the world than
humans. By this logic I guess humanity is not very successful.
Too bad, cockroaches are better than humans because there are
more of them. Porche is the most profitable automobile
manufacturer in the world. GM sells more cars but is on the edge
of bankruptcy. By this logic Porche is not as successful as GM.
Gimme a break.
I will never understand the demented logic of the "market share
is the only measure of success" mentality.
written code??? What part of Apple software is poorly written,
could you please explain please? You talk about a mouse? Who
cares about a mouse for goodness sake? I mean really? Mac have
supported multibutton mice for years and years and years (yes
you can right mouse click all day long if you want, it just works)!
If you look a little deeper my good person, you will find a
plethora of brilliant Apple based software that is used in the
scientific and medical fields, the animation and video fields and
of course let us not forget that MS generally produces their
newest of "Office" for the Mac platform prior (yes prior) then
their own respective Windows platform! Wanna bet? I'll take you
on!
The absurdity is further compounded by the fact that nobody is locked into playing itunes songs solely on an ipod. You can burn your songs to a re-writable CD, and then import them as MP3 files (I did this for months before seeing what a great player the iPod was). So forcing Apple to open up itunes is really just a matter of convenience for users of competitive MP3 players.
Even if we wanted to ignore these issues, and also that Apple does not have a monopoly on selling music, there are other problems with forcing Apple to open up their DRM. They can't just disable DRM, the music companies would not allow it. That means Apple would have to license their iPod software to any competitor that wanted it. The only way they could implement this would be to provide source code for the iPod. Within hours, that code would be on the Internet. So effectively, the response to Apple's success is that they give away their designs, and there is no DRM. I guess that would make some people happy, but those people probably wouldn't be happy if the locks were taken off their doors so that everyone could share what they own.
Disclosure: I own shares of Apple stock. I haven't posted this comment because I own the stock, I own the stock because Apple is the only innovative consumer tech company. The rest of the large electronics and software companies are pathetic sheep.
Hey that sound familiar to what you are complaining about above doesn't it. Hope Apple and it's users weren't cheering too hard when these things were being forced on Microsoft.
so it is a fair fight. People that buy on iTunes are happy with
there ipods and the DRM on the files.
Why is Apple under fire when MS and Sony have more
restrictions, when certain CD can't be ripped and the Mac
completely left out. Apple didn't abuse there monopoly to grow
this big in music, it was fair competition and Apple won this
time.
Now, i don't think a ruling like this is bad, other DRM schemes
will be subject to the same rules and competition will be fair.
The final word will be with the record industry that forced the
DRM in the first place, if they don't agree there won't be music in
the scandinavian online stores.
been able to export your iTMS tracks to a CD as aiff or mp3
format, both of which can be played on any "MP3" music player
out there.
What these cases are asking for is already possible and always
has been so they have zero case.
Don't like that, then don't buy your music from iTMS (or any
other online service as they all have the same restrictions in one
way or another).
governments are whining essentially on behalf of inferior
products and services because one product/service has become
very successful by people's own choosing. People don't have to
buy an iPod.
It's not like Apple is in a position to force people to buy iPods/
iTunes. The content IS avaiable from other sources.
This whol thing is no doubt fueled by lobbyists on behalf of sore
losers with crummy products that can't compete on innovation,
so they have to resort to legislation. Talk about expensive R&D.
Insanity.
case. They are probably sticking to a single point of "must have
DRM" and forgetting everything else at their disposal. It is time
that Apple takes the case to the public with a document on their
iTunes site and Apple.com with an explanation of their position
and business reality along with easy to understand analogies
and "how to's" of backing up iTunes music to CD for those
people like Bjorn Erik Thon who are just too stupid to figure out
how to work their computers. They should also employ as many
lobbyists as Microsoft must be employing to create this
nonsense in the first place.
... And while Norway is at it, I want all games and programs from
my old PC to be made compatible with my Mac. It just isn't right
that, just because Microsoft has 95 percent of the OS market,
that the programs aren't compatible with Appe products.
music for the ipod. THAT IS WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED FOR - and
that is why its embedded into Itunes. The music store is pretty
much like an Ipod plug in. I dont use mine much, but others do.
Adobe are not forced to make their plugins compatible to other
graphics software packages. M$ Office Macros are not legally
forced to be compliant with Open Office (Even though Microsoft
has the Office Monopoly)!
Fact of the matter is that Apple is not a monopoly. People do
have the choice. They can buy CDs, buy different music players
and go to different services. That is all your perogative as a
consumer and if they dont because of a lack of choices, then
some company should get out there and provide an alternative
that people want.
Apple have the bulk of the market right now, but it wont last
forever. Technology is fickle. It changes with the wind. Just like
the Sony Walkman that was in the same position two decedes
ago.
- Europe Welcomes Piracy With Open Arms
- by frankz00 June 12, 2006 8:06 AM PDT
- That's what the headline should read because once iTunes leaves Europe that is exactly what is going to fill the void. Idiots. They need to invent their own stuff if they don't like what we make!
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(38 Comments)