Apple: Accessory To Crime?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Christopher Johnsen <cj () pranaentertainment com>
Date: August 2, 2004 5:32:53 AM EDT
To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>
Subject: Apple: Accessory To Crime?

Dave,

 I’m an IP’er. I work in the music business. A small record label. I  
saw this article in the Boston Globe by Hiawatha Bray, a fellow IP list  
member.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/08/02/ 
apples_music_operation_hits_a_sour_note/

Apple's music operation hits a sour note

 By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff  |  August 2, 2004

 It's not enough to denounce crime and lock up criminals, say the  
social scientists. We must consider the root causes of crime. Which  
brings us to Apple Computer Inc., which is encouraging people to steal  
digital music files, and undermining its own success to boot.

 How's that? Apple's iTunes Music Store offered the first easy way to  
buy music legally over the Internet. Surely that has helped to  
discourage illegal file swapping. But there's a catch, as we saw last  
week when a rival music seller attempted to crash the iTunes party...


 Hit the link to read the rest. Hiawatha makes her dubious claim in the  
final paragraph of the article.

 My comments, should you find them relevant are as follows:

 This journalist makes a ridiculous claim that because Apple's  
best-selling iPod (3 million sold and counting) is proprietary in  
nature, only playing music files from its iTunes service, which  
utilizes its "FairPlay" digital rights management and does not allow  
its files to be played on other digital music players, nor play files  
from the other digital music services such as Napster, that it  
effectively encourages stealing. Forcing people to go to use P2P sites  
like Kazaa to get all of their music. That's like saying if I buy a gun  
for home protection, Smith & Wesson is encouraging me to enter into a  
life of armed robbery or murder. DVD-Audio discs don't play in my CD  
player, SACD's don't play in my DVD player. Proprietary formats are  
nothing new. Consumers make a choice. What levels the playing field is  
equal availability of all titles in every medium.

 When I buy an iPod, I understand going in that it only works with the  
iTunes music service AND any MP3 music files I may already have on my  
computer. I'm not sure I see how that suddenly implants visions of  
criminality in my head. I own an iPod and I haven’t made a beeline for  
Kazaa or any other illegal downloading service.

 Apple has done more than ANY company to offer a legal, easy and  
comprehensive system for consumers to download music from the internet.  
Rather than demonize them, why not focus on the true culprits - the  
music industry. If the industry would catch up and respond to consumer  
demand, they would make ALL of their music catalog available equally to  
all of the digital music download services and let the consumer make  
the final decision about how they would like to access and purchase  
their downloads.

 All this journalist is doing is engaging in some kind of biased  
vendetta against Apple and their cutting-edge products and making an  
outlandish claim that buying an iPod will turn people into digital  
music pirates. Nothing could be further from the truth and it is just  
plain wrong to suggest otherwise. 
 

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