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BusinessWeek on Opening Apple's iTunes DRM
hype7 writes "BusinessWeek is running a very interesting story on Apple's foray into music, with a different bent to everyone else's. BW suggests that, instead of opening the iPod up to the world, Apple should instead license its DRM - 'Fairplay' - to anyone who wants to start up a music store. The upside is obvious: it would mean that Apple's music format, AAC, would become ubiquitous; Apple could quite feasibly make money on licensing fees (say 1 cent per song sold); and, it would just happen to stick it to Microsoft and the Windows Media Format. As the iTunes Music Store isn't running at a profit (or forecast to make a big one), having the Music Store clones eat into Apple's existing market share wouldn't be a problem; all these stores would be doing is building a bigger potential market for the iPod."
with all the complaining people do about Microsoft because they are a monopoly, they are ready to support and relish the idea that Apple could be a digital music monopolist just to "stick it" to Microsoft.
My Dell Jukebox... doesn't have any DRM, at least none that I'm aware of
Wow, you're an ignorant tool. In addition to MP3, the Dell supports WMA, which indeed has DRM-- if you want to use any of the WMA-based online music stores, guess what? Those tunes you buy are DRMed. And you act like the iPod can't also handle non-DRMed formats like MP3, WAV, AIFF, etc, which it can. I've got 6,400+ songs on my 30GB, all MP3.
Your better battery life argument is tired. Unless you commute from say, L.A. to Tokyo every morning, both devices should have enough juice to get you through the day.
I can also use it as a hard drive if I want, and even boot my Mac from it. If you're gonna take shots at the iPod over features it doesn't have, then maybe you should actually know what features it doesn't have, you asshole.
Enjoy your cheap knockoff.
I mean, if I bought a Sony laptop that had problems, my next laptop would be an IBM!
I think Cory needs a shrink!
Best Buy can have you arrested
DON'T ARGUE WETHER ACC IS APPLE's PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY!!! I come her for intelligent conversation, and bikering over a really dead subject for the nth time is a waste of time.
AAC is not apples
Fairplay which is wrapped around it is
Yes/No, Ogg Vorbis/FLAC is/isn't better
Okay, with that out of the way, please talk about something new!
Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
iTunes and iPod will be history once Microsoft comes up with the Windows Media devices and it's own store. It will make it part of the OS and may install it through Windows Update Services.
Apple could quite feasibly make money on licensing fees (say 1 cent per song sold);
Nah, 7 cents per song.
It's worth the extra money for a nicer [insert Apple product name here].
I'm a 2000 man.
I didn't know microsoft PR droids were allowed to expose themselves on slashdot.
karma: ouch!