Slashdot Mirror
Apple to Offer Monthly iTunes TV Subscriptions
sg3000 writes "Fans of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, rejoice! Reuters is reporting that Apple will provide monthly subscriptions to two of Comedy Central's most popular shows. One question, as TV shows become available for sale on the Internet, will this make it harder to share clips online, such as through Google Video? In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true."
GNAA
bitches
A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in an election.
"Sigh, I was waiting for this to hit the Slashdot front page."
Welcome to the "I sigh because I'm an arrogant know-it-all prick" club.
Vote for Pedro
Glad you like DRM. The MPAA and RIAA like it too. So does Apple iTunes. They all agree taht they can't wait till your Mac crashes so you'll use their DRM crippled garbage again. Have fun being a good little consumer.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Apple and vendor lock-in
/ttfn
Modern Apple relies very much on "Selling the complete package". If you have one Apple product you always need another one for that tight integration only Apple can offer. If you have started using Apple products you can't cheaply change it for something else. If there is no technical difficulty to change to another vendor you can always rely on Apple legal trying to make you a criminal for trying out something else.
iTms & iPod
Apples has a strong lock-in with online music. Apples music store (iTms) is connected very tightly to their player (the iPod), only DRM (most online music you buy are in DRM format) music from Apples store will play on iPod and only iPod works as a portable player with the store. As a result if you start to buy music from the store you can never change to another portable player because your music will no longer play. This is important for Apple and is a classic vendor lock-in. This also have some other let-downs for iPod owners. Most other online music stores offer a subscription service as a complement to buying the songs. On a subscription service you get all the music you can listen to for around $10/month (You may not keep listening to the music if you stop paying). Price varies as there are competition between the stores. Apple can never offer a subscription service on iTms, if they did many people would use that instead of paying $1/song. Apple would probably make more money on this as opposed to selling single songs but the lock-in would be gone. You could just buy another player and sign up for another service where features/price is better. By going their own route Apple can ensure you buy iPod forever or you have to make a serious loss of investment.
Macintosh
Apple also make computers which are basically normal PCs with a small Apple logo on. They bundle these computers with their own operating system, OS X. There is no technical reason why you can't install OS X on a PC from another vendor. But once again, Apple needs the lock-in. As there is no technical reason Apple has to rely on lawyers to scream criminal on everybody who install software they rightly bought on a computer they own. Apple has some text in the click-through-agreement that says exactly how you can and can't use your software. Apparently according to Apple installing your software on another vendors computer is not legal. In most countries these "contracts" are null and void if not for the apparent reason that there is no way you as a consumer can understand the legal mumbojumbo Apple is trying to push in these non signed non paper deals. Any consumer organization worth it's salt would cram these contracts so far up Steve Jobs arse he would shit lawyer-turds for a year. This is nothing but a desparate move by Apple to try to keep the lock-in that really isn't there. Do what you want with your software as long as it is within the copyright laws of your country. Apple can't touch you. Apple has also gone so far as trying to close down websites that discusses OS X on non Apple hardware. This is nothing short of Mafia-tactics, a bad move but at least we now know what Apple thinks of free speech. Every thing to keep you locked up.
iPod is Unix
-- If iPod isn't the answer you have the wrong needs --
Would you like to climb out of Steve Job's ass and repeat that again?
Jeez, talk about Apple fanboy!!!
Hey, Apple fags.
Apple has patented RSS, a technology that they did not invent or contribute to in any meaningful way.