The workarounds are plentiful and the notion of vendor lock-in is pure myth. So my iTunes files are worthless, although there are already easy workarounds (burn to cd, capture to iMovie, iWeb, Garage Band, or QT pro, to name a few). By the time Creative makes a good player, FairPlay cracks will be readily available.
There are some crazy egomaniacal influences prevalent with computer geeks. "Good for you geek-boy, you successfully wasted an entire weekend in your basement typing 50,000,000 lines of code. No wonder you have no friends."
Other things, like how to change the margins in a Word document (which people forget sometimes twice a day) really pushed the limits of my patience.
Equally frustrating for me is when people ask me how to do something that I don't exactly know how to do myself, but I figure out in a few minutes. I get to the point where I just tell them, "have you tried F1 yet?". Most of my coworkers are just too damned lazy to try to figure it out, and some don't possess enough intelligence not to eat the mouse. I don't think this article is defending these mouth-breather types.
I'm only in my first year of law school, and already many of my classmates have adopted a "smarter-than-thou" attitude toward staff, undergraduates around campus, and the world in general.
Isn't this just because they are 25 year old college students? Let's check back in 10 years for a good laugh, shall we?
Congratulations for exposing the reason software sucks, why networks are always going down, and why we as a society have allowed for such low standards as Microsoft Anything. I work with the biggest geeks on the planet (NSA) and the key to geek-power is to find like-minded socially-maladapted dolts and gang up on normal people.
I think the "forever an iPod user" argument has outlived its welcome, as many other posters have already pointed out that you can put non-drm music on your iPod in the form of your own music cd collection, or any of the other file formats like mp3. You don't have to buy from iTunes. If you did, then I'd buy your argument. Even then, it can be argued that the burn-to-cd workaround suffices for many users. I just don't buy the paranoia associated with the anti-DRM crowd. What, exactly, can't I do again with my iTunes songs, other than play them on more than 5 devices simultaneously?
On a side note, I signed up for a free eMusic account today. Great idea--no content. Without DRM, the major labels won't buy into a business model like eMusic. I would LOVE to give Apple $19.99 a month for 80 downloads or whatever it is, but it won't happen without some sort of DRM scheme. Digital Rights means the rights of the copyright holder, NOT the user, after all.
Fair enough, but other players do the same thing. Plays for Sure doesn't even work on the Zune, so Microsoft is basically abandoning that one, and following the Apple pattern of proprietary DRM. I don't think it is a good idea, I just don't think it is fair to pick on one company (Apple), when it appears that they ALL do it.
The only anti-competitive thing I see Apple doing is they are kicking everyone else's ass with a good product. Yes, it has flaws, but the overall experience is pure Apple simplicity. You are right, many people are not technically competent enough to handle cd's and all the different file formats available, and that is the allure of iTunes + iPod: it all just works with a credit card and the "buy now" button.
I hear this argument a lot and I don't understand it. I can play iTunes purchased songs on my car stereo and home dvd player too. iTunes has 3x as many songs as emusic too. I haven't tried emusic (but I am going to in 5 minutes) but I can attest that iTunes is well worth the experience as well. It is a sharply designed store with nice browsing features and the largest library available. That has to be worth something to some people, in spite of the DRM.
Maybe this is the real "format war" and HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are playing second fiddle? I say the solution is caveat emptor. Inform yourself before you buy something. I can't blame any of the companies for creating their own standards, even though I think it is funny that Microsoft can't even make a DRM that is compatible with their previous ones.
So people want to force Apple to make Microsoft formats work on the iPod? Those same people blame Apple for iTunes purchased songs not working on a Zune as well? I don't get the double standard. If Apple should be forced to make iPods play Microsoft DRM, then isn't it the responsibility of Microsoft to make Apple's FairPlay work on Zunes? I think I'll go buy a Zune then sue Microsoft because my iTunes songs don't work on the Zune. I hope this case gets thrown out and the woman has to pay the court costs.
Well, I have to admit, I enjoy you attitude much better than the last guy. The Man, by the way, has never been Apple Inc. (for the record). I think if you had a cuppatea with Steve J. you'd see he's much more like you and I than he is the man. Suck that Apple Fanboi haters! OOps...never post drunk...
I've long stated it is the responsibility of the industry to protect their interests. The answer is NOT to chase down 12-year olds and sue their moms' asses off. Companies need to copy-protect their shit, or at least make it inconvenient enough to copy that reasonable people would rather pay a small fee than geek-off for hours on end just to stick it to the man.
DRM is the responsibility of industry and is acceptable as long as it doesn't reasonably infringe on my ability to use the product in my home at my leisure.
(hint: CDs don't store music in MP3 or AAC format)
Uh, yes they do if you burn a data cd. And amazingly, as if by magic, every cd player in my household plays MP3 cds. Wow!
Pissing match aside (ok, so your penis is larger, because you used more audio formats and acronyms), the fact remains you can take an iTunes song, which some deem dubious in quality to begin with, and put it on cd, then rip it back to your computer, drm-free. If you are going to complain about the quality loss, you probably are too smug to have even purchased a 128kbs drm'd track in the first place. I say it again, if you don't like it don't buy it. As for this professional musician, 128kbs AAC DRM'd iTunes tracks sound just fine on my very expensive audio setup. YMMV, as they say. Frankly, I'm tired of the incessant griping and bitching about petty ideological beliefs about DRM because it has little, if anything, to do about audio quality.
Steve Jobs' flaws out of this, YOUR fatal flaw is your ignorance.
Other than open-source MP3 files, only music downloaded through iTunes will play on iPods, and iTunes music won't play on any portable device except an iPod.
That is funny that my 20+ year cd-collection doesn't play on my iPod, according to you. According to me, my hard drive isn't big enough to handle my entire cd collection, but those cds that I have ripped play just fine on my iPod. Every MP3 file purchased or downloaded from any site also work on my iPod, but according to you only open-sourced ones do. I'm sure glad I went out of my way to make sure all those mp3 downloads are open-sourced (not).
Do iTunes not play on other players because of the DRM, or because no other players support Apple's codec? I don't know the answer to this, but if it is because of DRM, then I would frown on that. If it is because nobody wants to make a product that supports a competitors format, then I understand that (even though it is pretty dumb, given the huge market share of iTunes.)
In the mean time, the answer is don't fucking buy songs on iTunes if you don't like it and shut the hell up already. I quite like my iMac/MacBook+iPod+iTunes experience. I also think my PC+iPod+iTunes is pretty sweet. Deal with it already!
* You lose significant quality in the second round of encoding.
There is no second round. You download a song, burn it to cd, then rip it to whatever format you want. It starts as 128 AAC and if you rip it back to your computer as 128 MP3, it is still 128. You can do that 100 times and there will be no quality loss if you keep sampling it at 128. That's the magic of digital.
so by not totally eliminating your ability to play the music you buy from them on what is likely the most prevalent music playback device (the CD player)...
What are you smoking? Every album I buy on iTunes I've burned to disk and play in my home/car cd players.
* Does iTunes successfully get the metadata for these CDs, or do you have to enter it manually or edit it from the CD text? I'm guess the latter...
Your guess would be wrong. Instead of guessing, why not try it out before you post?
Amazing how rabid the haters are, even when there is such a ridiculously easy work-around(s). Of course Apple is merely paying lip-service. If they wanted to truly vendor lock and DRM their stuff, their DRM would make it impossible for such easy work-arounds as burning a cd and ripping it back to iTunes. Give it up Apple haters.
"But in this ever changing world in which we live in" --Paul McCartney. What an idiot that guy is. Oh shit, I just realized I posted COPYRIGHTED song lyrics! I'm fooked now!
What if they started posting viruses and malware and naming them things like "Harry Potter" or "Battle Star Galactica S03E10". Would that be legal? I think the phishing analogy might have some teeth to it as well, but seeing how nobody seems to be doing anything about the 5 phishing emails a week I get, I'm just gonna assume it would be non-enforceable.
People who like to share content are always screaming that the RIAA should stop going after people and do something to protect their content. Well they are, and people yell at the RIAA for protecting their content. Hmm..something tells me people just want shit for free. In this case the RIAA is flooding the fields with dummy torrents. Nothing wrong with that; they are protecting their interests. Going after people who download dummy files, though is a different story, since there isn't anything illegal about that.
But the chances of finding other illegal stuff on someones computer, after they get the IP address from their fake torrent bait, is highly probable. Given the person was trying to download something they thought was real probably means they have other illegal downloads. I think that makes this entrapment. They lure people in with something, just so you can show "intent", and then get the legal rights to serve their Internet Provider, so they can root around your computer for illegal content, theirs or not! An analogy would be putting cops on the street as hookers, and when the John doesn't fall for the bait, the cops move in, because afterall, the John was in the same area as the hookers, so he must be up to no good.
I kind of agree, but sometimes this is a dangerous assumption, and generally not good for our society as a whole. This sort of mindset allows for all sorts of discrimination, especially against any one who might be just a tad different than the rest (such as slashdotters, heh).
The problem is you could expand this notion of "your actions show intent" to mean, "so you have a computer, therefore you must download torrents." Anyone could argue that as reasonable doubt, and when you get into some back-water parts of the world, the majority rules...and when the majority themselves are a bunch of crooked hicks, then you are screwed. It is no fun fighting the system when the deputy, judge and jury foreman are all related. And yes, I lived in rural Georgia for 5 years.
Good point. But since there is no Texas law that says "arranging to receive a torrent file that you believe to contain copyrighted material is a crime".
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The workarounds are plentiful and the notion of vendor lock-in is pure myth. So my iTunes files are worthless, although there are already easy workarounds (burn to cd, capture to iMovie, iWeb, Garage Band, or QT pro, to name a few). By the time Creative makes a good player, FairPlay cracks will be readily available.
There are some crazy egomaniacal influences prevalent with computer geeks. "Good for you geek-boy, you successfully wasted an entire weekend in your basement typing 50,000,000 lines of code. No wonder you have no friends."
Congratulations for exposing the reason software sucks, why networks are always going down, and why we as a society have allowed for such low standards as Microsoft Anything. I work with the biggest geeks on the planet (NSA) and the key to geek-power is to find like-minded socially-maladapted dolts and gang up on normal people.
On a side note, I signed up for a free eMusic account today. Great idea--no content. Without DRM, the major labels won't buy into a business model like eMusic. I would LOVE to give Apple $19.99 a month for 80 downloads or whatever it is, but it won't happen without some sort of DRM scheme. Digital Rights means the rights of the copyright holder, NOT the user, after all.
Well, back to my original argument then, where I specifically indicted Microsoft...
Fair enough, but other players do the same thing. Plays for Sure doesn't even work on the Zune, so Microsoft is basically abandoning that one, and following the Apple pattern of proprietary DRM. I don't think it is a good idea, I just don't think it is fair to pick on one company (Apple), when it appears that they ALL do it.
The only anti-competitive thing I see Apple doing is they are kicking everyone else's ass with a good product. Yes, it has flaws, but the overall experience is pure Apple simplicity. You are right, many people are not technically competent enough to handle cd's and all the different file formats available, and that is the allure of iTunes + iPod: it all just works with a credit card and the "buy now" button.
I hear this argument a lot and I don't understand it. I can play iTunes purchased songs on my car stereo and home dvd player too. iTunes has 3x as many songs as emusic too. I haven't tried emusic (but I am going to in 5 minutes) but I can attest that iTunes is well worth the experience as well. It is a sharply designed store with nice browsing features and the largest library available. That has to be worth something to some people, in spite of the DRM.
Maybe this is the real "format war" and HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are playing second fiddle? I say the solution is caveat emptor. Inform yourself before you buy something. I can't blame any of the companies for creating their own standards, even though I think it is funny that Microsoft can't even make a DRM that is compatible with their previous ones.
So people want to force Apple to make Microsoft formats work on the iPod? Those same people blame Apple for iTunes purchased songs not working on a Zune as well? I don't get the double standard. If Apple should be forced to make iPods play Microsoft DRM, then isn't it the responsibility of Microsoft to make Apple's FairPlay work on Zunes? I think I'll go buy a Zune then sue Microsoft because my iTunes songs don't work on the Zune. I hope this case gets thrown out and the woman has to pay the court costs.
Well, I have to admit, I enjoy you attitude much better than the last guy. The Man, by the way, has never been Apple Inc. (for the record). I think if you had a cuppatea with Steve J. you'd see he's much more like you and I than he is the man. Suck that Apple Fanboi haters! OOps...never post drunk...
DRM is the responsibility of industry and is acceptable as long as it doesn't reasonably infringe on my ability to use the product in my home at my leisure.
Pissing match aside (ok, so your penis is larger, because you used more audio formats and acronyms), the fact remains you can take an iTunes song, which some deem dubious in quality to begin with, and put it on cd, then rip it back to your computer, drm-free. If you are going to complain about the quality loss, you probably are too smug to have even purchased a 128kbs drm'd track in the first place. I say it again, if you don't like it don't buy it. As for this professional musician, 128kbs AAC DRM'd iTunes tracks sound just fine on my very expensive audio setup. YMMV, as they say. Frankly, I'm tired of the incessant griping and bitching about petty ideological beliefs about DRM because it has little, if anything, to do about audio quality.
Fool I am not. Jerk, yes.
That is funny that my 20+ year cd-collection doesn't play on my iPod, according to you. According to me, my hard drive isn't big enough to handle my entire cd collection, but those cds that I have ripped play just fine on my iPod. Every MP3 file purchased or downloaded from any site also work on my iPod, but according to you only open-sourced ones do. I'm sure glad I went out of my way to make sure all those mp3 downloads are open-sourced (not).
Do iTunes not play on other players because of the DRM, or because no other players support Apple's codec? I don't know the answer to this, but if it is because of DRM, then I would frown on that. If it is because nobody wants to make a product that supports a competitors format, then I understand that (even though it is pretty dumb, given the huge market share of iTunes.)
In the mean time, the answer is don't fucking buy songs on iTunes if you don't like it and shut the hell up already. I quite like my iMac/MacBook+iPod+iTunes experience. I also think my PC+iPod+iTunes is pretty sweet. Deal with it already!
Amazing how rabid the haters are, even when there is such a ridiculously easy work-around(s). Of course Apple is merely paying lip-service. If they wanted to truly vendor lock and DRM their stuff, their DRM would make it impossible for such easy work-arounds as burning a cd and ripping it back to iTunes. Give it up Apple haters.
"But in this ever changing world in which we live in" --Paul McCartney. What an idiot that guy is. Oh shit, I just realized I posted COPYRIGHTED song lyrics! I'm fooked now!
What if they started posting viruses and malware and naming them things like "Harry Potter" or "Battle Star Galactica S03E10". Would that be legal? I think the phishing analogy might have some teeth to it as well, but seeing how nobody seems to be doing anything about the 5 phishing emails a week I get, I'm just gonna assume it would be non-enforceable.
People who like to share content are always screaming that the RIAA should stop going after people and do something to protect their content. Well they are, and people yell at the RIAA for protecting their content. Hmm..something tells me people just want shit for free. In this case the RIAA is flooding the fields with dummy torrents. Nothing wrong with that; they are protecting their interests. Going after people who download dummy files, though is a different story, since there isn't anything illegal about that.
But the chances of finding other illegal stuff on someones computer, after they get the IP address from their fake torrent bait, is highly probable. Given the person was trying to download something they thought was real probably means they have other illegal downloads. I think that makes this entrapment. They lure people in with something, just so you can show "intent", and then get the legal rights to serve their Internet Provider, so they can root around your computer for illegal content, theirs or not! An analogy would be putting cops on the street as hookers, and when the John doesn't fall for the bait, the cops move in, because afterall, the John was in the same area as the hookers, so he must be up to no good.
The problem is you could expand this notion of "your actions show intent" to mean, "so you have a computer, therefore you must download torrents." Anyone could argue that as reasonable doubt, and when you get into some back-water parts of the world, the majority rules...and when the majority themselves are a bunch of crooked hicks, then you are screwed. It is no fun fighting the system when the deputy, judge and jury foreman are all related. And yes, I lived in rural Georgia for 5 years.
Good point. But since there is no Texas law that says "arranging to receive a torrent file that you believe to contain copyrighted material is a crime".