Thoughts on Sincerity
Hi Steve,
Earlier today I read your “Thoughts on Music” post. Afterwards, my initial reaction was “That’s great! You get ‘em Steve!”. It’s no secret that DRM is broken by design, but it’s nice to see one of the biggest users of it say so. However, I was quickly reminded by a colleague that Apple hardly seems interested in the “everything works with everything” utopia you describe. One specific example is the iTunes music sharing feature. Soon after it was released, some smart people figured out how it worked and developed software to be compatible with it. This let people access their iTunes-shared music from devices or operating systems that didn’t have iTunes. Soon after, Apple implemented a mechanism which prevented non-iTunes clients from doing this. Why? It wasn’t because of the record companies. The music purchased on the iTunes Music Store was still protected by FairPlay, so they had no reason to complain. The only conceivable reason you’d have for doing this is to force consumers into vendor lock in. Well, it didn’t work. Some more smart people defeated your mechanism and once again people were playing their iTunes-shared music using whatever software they liked best (be it iTunes or otherwise). But that didn’t stop Apple from re-implementing a similar protection scheme again in iTunes 7. This time you even knifed some business partners in the process. This kind of behavior isn’t at all congruent with what you’re saying in your post. Have you changed your mind now? Will the next iTunes release remove this restriction? If your “Thoughts on Music” was sincere, I’d expect so.
February 6th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
http://digg.com/apple/An_Open_Source_Developer_s_Response_to_Job_s_Thoughts_on_Music
February 7th, 2007 at 1:40 am
Also, it is worth pointing out that apparently Apple sticks DRM even to music that the original provider does not require to.
This was news a few weeks ago on reddit.com, but I cant find the article. But some folks remember that:
http://www.osnews.com/permalink.php?news_id=17187&comment_id=209947
February 7th, 2007 at 2:04 am
The scheme that prevents other applications from playing iTunes shares was implemented to help put programs like OurTunes and iLeech out of business, which circa iTunes 4.0 (when the music sharing feature was wide open) quickly became among the most popular illegal music downloading programs on the net. Apple had a clear choice: invoke the wrath of the RIAA, with whom it is dancing a very delicate dance, or close that loophole. Other restrictions that have come since - like a reduction in the number of simultaneous and daily shares - clearly make Apple’s software _less_ useful and it doesn’t take Kreskin to realize there was RIAA arm-twisting behind the scenes. Would love to hear your suggestions for an open music sharing system that at the same time would prevent the iLeech leechers. Maybe Apple isn’t taking the kind of principled stand against DRM you’d prefer, but let’s not pretend that the RIAA’s policies aren’t directly behind these moves.
I think the facts are obvious. There is a “lock in” effect from iTunes DRM, but it’s extremely weak because studies show that 97% of the tracks on people’s digital music players are DRM-free (ripped from CDs or yes, illegally downloaded). Only a drop in the bucket of iPod owners are heavily invested in iTunes DRM music. I think Steve Jobs is being genuine here - if the RIAA drops their misguided love affair with DRM, the digital music market will grow. And that can only be good for Apple, which dominates the market for reasons that have nothing to do with DRM or lock in.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Miguel: Are there any online music stores that sell -both- RIAA-sanctioned, DRM-encumbered tracks from the major labels, and DRM-free tracks from other sources? I’m honestly not aware of any. iTunes, the Zune store, purchases PlaysForSure songs… all the same deal. Songs that show up DRM-free elsewhere suddenly show up DRM-encumbered on those sites with major label support. Meanwhile, non-DRM stores like eMusic continue to lack music from the majors.
If I were the RIAA (and was pro-DRM as they are), I’d make damn certain that stores that sold DRM and non-DRM tunes side-by-side didn’t exist. I’d never want to purposely invite that comparison. If you sold my encumbered music, you’d be required to sell it all encumbered. I strongly suspect that this is exactly the same reason why all “squirted” (shared) songs on a Microsoft Zune expire after three plays or three days. Doesn’t matter if you wrote and recorded the damn song yourself, it’ll expire just like the latest RIAA-protected Justin Timberlake hit.
For the record, I don’t even own an iPod. I’m no knee-jerk Apple apologist. But I think all of this finger-pointing and fuming at Apple is misguided and misdirected. Very similar to the silly “religious” infighting that so frequently infects the open source community, it just distracts us from the real enemy.
February 7th, 2007 at 5:37 am
>For the record, I don’t even own an iPod. I’m
>no knee-jerk Apple apologist. But I think all of >this finger-pointing and fuming at Apple is
>misguided and misdirected. Very similar to the
>silly “religious” infighting that so frequently
>infects the open source community, it just
>distracts us from the real enemy.
for god sake, universe’s sake of whatever’s sake, please DROP the _stupid_ religious or apologist debate stuff.
we don’t care about the stupids morons you discuss about apple or opensource
and your enemy is only _your_ enemy. not mine or ours.
there are nothing to say here about “apple” or “opensource”. Jobs simply tells why apple is forced to do drm and his opinion about a no-drm market : apple will embrace it.
simply that.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:17 am
[…] Unfortunately, one Planet GNOME blogger is correct to point out that Apple’s handling of this Sharing feature isn’t all rosy, and essentially hasn’t been from day one. […]
February 7th, 2007 at 6:26 am
I recommend reading the entire post from Jon:
http://nanocrew.net/category/drm/
February 8th, 2007 at 3:37 am
[…] Also of interest is James Willcox's short post on why the history of Apple's ever-increasing restriction of iTunes' music sharing feature shows that they are not really interested in convergence and usability. tags: DRM, public relations, Steve Jobs […]