iTunes User Sues Apple Over Lock-In

GregChant writes "It seems like Apple can also be at the receiving end of a lawsuit, too: Californian Thomas Slattery filed suit against Apple because 'Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice'. With over 200 million songs sold, and Apple controlling over 80% of the hard drive digital audio player market, is this just a case of someone just trying to cash in on Apple's success? Or is this genuinely an issue of buyer lock-in and monopolistic practices?"

Comments

Bogus

[BWJones]

Bogus. One has to wonder if this is an effort by some company to force Apple to open up the iPod without having to pay Apple to license it like HP has. Somebody somewhere is always trying to get something for free.

The reality is that Apple has placed copy protection on the songs sold through the iTMS as the mandate of the record industry just as Napster and Microsoft has with their music formats. If you will remember, iTunes came out before the iTMS and any songs sold through the iTMS. Therefore, if you obtain your music somewhere else other than the iTMS, if you chose to use iTunes (nothing that says you have to use iTunes either) you can use any portable hard drive music source that runs OS X or Windows. There is nothing saying that you cannot do this on any device you can find that will runs those alternatives. Apple is not forcing anybody to purchase songs from the iTMS. Quite the contrary, they have made iTunes flexible enough that it can play .mp3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4 and AAC along with an Apple lossless format.

Re:Bogus

[BWJones]

Oh, and of course the other obvious alternative this guy could choose is to burn the songs he purchases to CD and then get any bloody portable CD player he wants to play his songs (even those purchase through the iTMS).

a test...

[REBloomfield]

Or is this genuinely an issue of buyer lock-in and monopolistic practices?"

if (vendor == apple) { slash.bots =: defendDeity } else if (vendor = microsoft) { slash.bots =: postFlamebait }

This is ridiculous.

[kjones692]

If you feel limited by the choices offered by the iPod, why not get a different portable media player?

If you feel limited by the choices offered by the iTunes Music Store, why not use a different online music store?

This would only be a "lock-in" if, say, the iPod was the only portable media player that ran on a Mac, or if the iTunes Music Store was the only way to buy music online through a Mac... but I don't think it would even be then, because if it's that important to you, you could always go buy a Windows box.

Re:Support freedom of music!

[Altus]

but in order for this to be monopolistic wouldnt apple have to have a monopoly on the digital music market?

its not like iTunes is the only place to get music... there are plenty of other online sources with different DRM that might suit this customers needs. hell he could just buy CDs like people used to back in the day from that small organization... what were they called... the record companies?

Even if apple has a monopoly on MP3 players (which they dont) they let you get your music from anywhere you want. This lawsuit is completely frivolous.

Re:I agree...

[BWJones]

It's not illegal until they start bundling features people want and expect as a convience

No. It is not illegal until a company leverages their monopoly to prevent others from fairly competing. If your monopoly is fairly maintained because you have the best product and consumers simply prefer to purchase your product, then all is fair and no laws have been broken.

Re:Support freedom of music!

[metamatic]

The second you download your first album and you realize that you can't play it on a portable device other than a CD player you wonder if you shouldn't just go out and get that iPod so that you can continue to get your music legally... Most people would think it really sucks to pay $10 for an album and then not be able to listen on the go without burning to a CD and then re-ripping to WAV>MP3.

That's nothing... if you go out and buy a copy of Half-Life 2, suddenly you find you have to buy a Windows PC to use it! Sure, maybe you can go through the hassle of Linux and Wine and Cedega and whatever, but it really sucks.

I should sue Microsoft! Oh, wait...

Convert iTunes file to mp3

[superpulpsicle]

This script is readily available on the internet. This is part of the hymn project, which is LEGAL. I DID NOT write this script!

Just download hymn.exe, faad.exe, lame.exe in the same folder as this VB script. Name it something.vbs. Drag your iTunes .m4p files onto this script, and out comes mp3 with all your personal credentials deleted. You can play this anywhere, and share at will without worry.

'coded by man on street

Set oFs = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set id3Options = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")

binDir = oFs.GetFile(WScript.ScriptFullName).ParentFolder & "\"
workingDir = binDir & "working\"
decodedDir = binDir & "decoded\"

id3Options.Add "title", "--tt"
id3Options.Add "artist", "--ta"
id3Options.Add "album", "--tl"
id3Options.Add "date", "--ty"
id3Options.Add "track", "--tn"
id3Options.Add "genre", "--tg"

makeDirectory(workingDir)
makeDirectory(decoded Dir)

For Each arg in WScript.Arguments
walkArguments(arg)
Next

removeDirectory(workingDir)

Sub convertFile(fileName)
Set protectedFile = oFs.GetFile(fileName)
albumName = protectedFile.ParentFolder.Name
albumDir = decodedDir & albumName & "\"
makeDirectory(albumDir)
protectedFile.Copy(workingDir)
trackName = oFs.GetBaseName(protectedFile)
return1 = oShell.Run(quote(binDir & "hymn") & " " & quote(workingDir & trackName & ".m4p"), 1, TRUE)
return2 = oShell.Run(quote(binDir & "faad") & " " & quote(workingDir & trackName & ".m4a"), 1, TRUE)
Set LaunchedApp = oShell.Exec(quote(binDir & "faad") & " -i " & quote(workingDir & trackName & ".m4a"))
tagInfo = LaunchedApp.StdErr.ReadAll

For Each tag in id3Options.Keys
tagSwitches = tagSwitches & " " & id3Options.Item(tag) & " " & quote(getTag(tag, tagInfo))
Next

rem return3 = oShell.Run(quote(binDir & "lame") & tagSwitches & " " & quote(workingDir & trackName & ".wav") & " " & quote(albumDir & trackName & ".mp3"), 1, TRUE)
return3 = oShell.Run(quote(binDir & "lame") & " --ignore-tag-errors " & tagSwitches & " " & quote(workingDir & trackName & ".wav") & " " & quote(albumDir & trackName & ".mp3"), 1, TRUE)
End Sub

Sub walkArguments(arg)
If oFs.FolderExists(arg) Then
Set thisDir = oFs.GetFolder(arg)
Set subDirs = thisDir.SubFolders
Set theseFiles = thisDir.Files

If subDirs.Count > 0 Then
For Each dirName in subDirs
walkArguments(dirName)
Next
End If

For Each fileName in theseFiles
walkArguments(fileName)
Next

ElseIf oFs.FileExists(arg) Then

If oFs.GetExtensionName(arg) = "m4p" Then
convertFile(arg)
End If

End If
End Sub

Sub makeDirectory(dirName)
If Not oFs.FolderExists(dirName) Then
oFs.CreateFolder(dirName)
End If
End Sub

Sub removeDirectory(dirName)
If oFs.FolderExists(dirName) Then
oFs.GetFolder(dirName).Delete
End If
End Sub

Function quote(myString)
quote = Chr(34) & myString & Chr(34)
End Function

Function getTag(frameName, tagString)
Set oRegEx = New RegExp
oRegEx.Pattern = frameName & ".+\n"
frameNameAndValue = oRegEx.Execute(tagString).Item(0).Value
frameValue = Mid(frameNameAndValue, InStr(frameNameAndValue, ":") + 2)
getTag = Left(frameValue, Len(frameValue) - 2) 'Strip CR/LF
End Function