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Copy Protected CD Makers Attempt iPod Support
andrewdski writes "C|Net is reporting that both SunnComm International and Macrovision are courting Apple in an attempt to make their copy-protected CDs compatible with the iPod. This is being portrayed as a significant blow to Microsoft's control over digital rights technology." The iPod concerns were raised in a previous article.
If it's "copy protected", it's not a CD. Using the music industry's term is not the way to get non-geeks to understand the issue.
Let's come up with a name that reflects the true nature of these things, stick to it, and start using it.
As much as I'm in favor of any "significant blow to Microsoft control", I won't support any attempt to replace Blue Book audio with any crippled format. I simply will not buy crippled "CDs"; I don't care how many different flavors of DRM are included for my convenience.
When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
... is the biggest single obstacle the music industry has from ramming really nasty DRM down all our throats. The very nature of Apple's terms has stopped WMP dead in its tracks, and it's going to make the labels think twice with future formats like DVD-A and SACD.
I sincerely hope that they get the fact that people will pay for convenience, quality and portability. I think that as soon as they get that, the file sharing apps are going to seriously head south. They've got convenience with the iTunes music store, portability is ok (average at best), but they need a lot of work on quality (I'd like to see a lossless version of the digital master recording made available).
Get all three of those, and I'd pay up to double what they're presently charging.
-- james
Of course it's a blow to MS's control of DRM. They've been pushing everyone to use WMA, which not only would increase their control over DRM, but increase their control over media distribution in general.
Pushing everyone into WMA is a great example of Microsoft using it's near-monopoly to increase its control on other sectors of industry. I, for one, am glad Apple has chosen not to support WMA. Sure, you might argue that choosing to only support their own DRM scheme is anti-competitive on Apple's part, too, but I'd rather see a company limit its player to one DRM scheme than see all music everywhere put into a single DRM scheme, controlled by one company. Besides, I don't believe Apple has the sort of control over any market that Microsoft.
In any event, Apple/iTunes/iPod has brought the annoyance of DRM and it's conflict with fair use more into the forefront, which is what I've been predicting for a while now. (which is good)
And where do you get that from? Apple has agreed to DRM for their iTunes music store, under pressure from the RIAA (who wouldn't agree to any of the music to be put into iTunes' catalogue without DRM), but Apple has also insisted that DRM be fairly non-obtrusive. (if the DRM on iTMS gets too annoying, no one will use it anymore)
Apple has even refused to give the iPod WMA-playback capability. I mean, they haven't given a public refusal, but there's no technological reason why they couldn't include it, and rumor is that Apple even has firmware in-house that will give the iPod the ability to play WMAs, and they've chosen not to include this capability. Why? Perhaps they've made that choice in order to push users to use iTMS instead of other options. Or, just maybe, they did it because they have no motivation to make it easy for Microsoft to control media distribution by making WMA ubiquitous.
Releases of iTunes often include subtle changes in the licensing model
If by "often" you mean "once."
--
$tar -xvf
Something that no one seems to notice in these articles is that Fairplay as it currently implemented won't work on a CD. Fairplay includes your user id and encrypted atoms in the AAC container based on your user id. A CD will necessarily have to have a static encryption model. As far as I know, Fairplay doesn't do that.
I don't think that Apple will have much interest in changing their DRM to accommodate the CD DRM companies since doing nothing will have the same effect. If users can't use their iPods then I don't think that Suncomm or Macrovision DRM is going to become an industry standard.
What loophole? They are almost certainly trying to get Apple to import the songs as "Protected" and only allow exporting to iPods. Even these idiots would recognize that the iTunes software allows burning CDs from Apple's current DRM.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.