more on Apple's iPod code 'cracked'

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Scott Reed <yasthning () gmail com>
Date: October 25, 2006 7:45:07 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Apple's iPod code 'cracked'
Reply-To: scereed () indiana edu

Respectfully submitted for consideration as a reply:

I fail to see how Fairplay is an "open" format in any sense of the
word. There is not an intentional piece of openness (in the format
sense) about it. You can burn CDs because the proprietary iTunes opens
the proprietary format and deigns to write the raw audio to a CD.
License terms for "bought" music (as opposed to subscribed music) at
all major DRMed music stores allow you to do this burning, so the
relative freedom is the same on that front. At least with  MS's
PlaysForSure solution more then one company can implement it up and
down the line, which Apple refuses to even consider. Oh and in neither
Apple's or the other's case do you own the music "bought" (more or
less you license the music under restrictive rules that can change at
any time).

In truth Fairplay has always been a rather poor system, it simply
can't do play count or time limited music. Now some may find
particular uses for such schemes offensive, but they do allow some
rather nice new methods of music use (all you can eat subscriptions,
and play limited "demo" tracks like the zune) which extend the range
of the possible. Of course this means that whatever plot DVD Jon is up
to will not enable subscription or play limited content (as Fairplay
is not capable of honoring the restrictions), so anyone hoping to use
one of the all you can eat services with their iPod will be
disappointed. This leaves other online music stores left with only
price per track to differentiate themselves from iTunes, and honestly
that whole cheap music thing(i.e. Walmart) hasn't really taken off.
Also the whole fake fairplay music thing hasn't really worked for
Realplayer with Harmony, which has had to fight to adapt to each new
iPod firmware release, and is complicated to use.

Of course for things like (copy limited) promos of singles putting
them in an iPod compatible DRMed form that gets disabled everytime
Apple updates their firmware could be considered a good thing, a sort
of primitive time limitation. The labels don't want to be tied to
Apple for promotional work (or anything really). Also, they have
wanted to put copy limited iPod compatible tracks on their anti-rip
"not quite audio" cds so they can use such restrictions more, but if
"DVD Jon" is helping that, well ugh.

As far as putting fairplay enabled tracks on MS-DRM players, Apple
wouldn't even have to sue, they could just terminate the Music Store
agreement of any user that did this without refund (as is always their
right), which would mean every iTunes purchased song was now useless
for that user. Not only would the transfer software be very unpopular,
anybody who did suffer damages would sue the non Apple company. Of
course DVD Jon is smart he know all this, surely he has a plan of some
sort.

Scott Reed

> This article incorrectly states that music downloaded from iTunes
> can't be played on non-Apple MP3 players. Apple's downloaded tunes
> are encoded in AAC format, which itself isn't playable on most MP3
> players. (If it were, and if the players supported the FairPlay DRM
> system then they could play them directly too.) To play them on
> players w/o such features simply first burn the tracks to CD and then
> follow the procedure you'd normally use for loading CD music onto
> your non-Apple MP3 player.
>
> Likewise the article is incorrect that iTunes and the iPod somehow
> prevents other markets for MP3 tracks. The iPod will happily play any
> other MP3s from other vendors. What it won't play is tracks recorded
> in closed DRMs, which should be seen as a good thing. Fairplay is a
> much more open system for DRMs.
>
> What DVD Jon should be unhappy about instead is that other parties
> use closed and highly restrictive DRM schemes that prevent them those
> tracks from playing anywhere that those closed DRM mechanisms are
> utilized. Then again they also don't let you own the music you've
> bought either ;)
> --
>
> -dhan
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
> Dan Shoop                                                   AIM:  
> iWiring
> Systems & Networks Architect                      http:// 
> www.ustsvs.com/
> shoop () iwiring net                                http:// 
> www.iwiring.net/
> 1-714-363-1174
>
> "The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right
> questions." -- Claude Levi-Strauss


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