http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2083 Buyer beware. iTunes is cool. MS, Yahoo equivelents are cool. iPods are cool. DRM (Digitial Rights Management) that restricts where or how you play content, or copy content for your personal use, thus requiring that you buy software upgrades or different content players, is not cool. Seriously. It will (and already has) suck if you buy content that will play on one device but not another (I've seen this already on buyer reviews at Amazon, where the purchaser of the CD could play it on their car stereo, but couldn't play it on their boombox, or whatever). It will seriously suck if you have to buy a new player, buy new software (an upgrade), or pay a new license, on content that you already purchased, fair and square. This is exactly what DRM is coming to, if Apple or MS, or record companies or Hollywood, get their way. The overt "official" intention of DRM is to make sure that producers of content get fairly compensated for their work, and that said work is not stolen and illigally redistributed. That's great. But the reality of DRM is that it only screws over honest, buying customers, and gives the big corporations extra, unearned, continual revenue streams. Vote with your wallets, if it comes down to this DRM worse case scenario (a scenario that is very possible, even likely). Or better still, vote with your wallets now. Tell providers that wrap their content in DRM to go f&$# themselves, and buy from providers who don't wrap their content in DRM.
Wow. This is huge! What is video game makers did this? Sweet lord, can you imagine if you bought a video game that you can play on your PS2 but not on your home computer? Or an atari cartrage that you couldn't play on your X-Box? Seriously, what's the big deal? If a movie maker wants their movie available on both regular DVD and available for the PS2, they have to make two formats of the movie hard copy. It's not that big of a deal, really.
for the freedom of the world, i shall agree with jeff for the first time ever. people please stand up and show your anger!
I buy music from the iTunes Music Store. I can burn a CD of that music if I want to. What's the big deal?
You're comparison is not accurate. You are talking about completely different, competing video game technologies. I'm talking about buying a CD, that without my knowledge, has been wrapped in say, MS DRM technology, which prevents me from playing it on certain devices, like a common car stereo, a boombox, certain home CD players, etc. This has already happened. Just spend a while parusing listener/buyer reviews of popular titles over at Amazon.com, and you will come across someone who has had that happen to them, and they were understandably ticked off. Also, I, and many other people, have always liked making my own "best of", or "mix" CDs/tapes, as well as making copies for friends. DRM will severely restrict that. Also, most people who buy songs from a technology like iTunes (or competing products) expect to be able to play their music with little or no restrictions. But this is not the case because the purveyor of the proprietary DRM wrapper (read Apple or MS or whoever else) can require whatever they want for you to keep playing the content, which you already paid for. If they want to increase the sales of iPods (or whatever else), they can change the DRM scheme, rendering older downloads not playable on your older iPod. I'm not saying that this has already happened, but it is likely to happen if Apple obtains too much market dominence in the arena. This is not an anti Apple (or MS, or any other corporation) rant. It is only a "Buyer beware". It may not seem like a big deal right now, but it will be a major headache if people are too appathetic about it. Give 'em the chance, corporations will hoover your wallet everytime. The big corps are not evil per se, but they will always do what's best for them and their shareholders, and that is often at odds with what is good for consumers (or workers, or society in general). That is the nature of the beast. IOW, a dog licks itself because it can. As for Apple, Steve Jobs is a really smart guy, and generally not malevolent, and he would probably not be so stupid as to cut off his nose in spite of his face with unreasonable DRM restrictions. But you never know, he is, after all, a CEO of a major corporation, and being a CEO almost requires a certain amount of arrogance and megalomania. We already know Bill Gates would do what I've been describing, because he already has many times over with other technologies. In fact, Bill Gates (along with Larry Ellison, and many others), is the poster child for CEO arrogance and megalomania. Just watch out. Go ahead and buy lot's of songs on iTunes or MSN or whatever, or buy DRM wrapped CDs. But be aware of the potential consequences.
My brother is a big iTunes user, and has burned some CDs for me. Neither of us have come across any problems yet. However, the potential for problems is immense, with many competing DRM technologies starting to proliferate. If you are not worried, fine. But it couldn't hurt to read the blog I linked, as well as a few of the links on that blog.
DRM is just the tip of the iceberg. Combine it with "trusted computing" chips and palladium and you're really reaching Big Brother style control. These are worrying times.
They also sell songs (I believe) at a bitrate of 128, which is way worse than full quality. I don't know why anyone would buy from itunes or any online store until they give you the same quality and no restrictions (usually) that you get from a cd. You're just encouraging them.
Well, I can tell you why I do: Because I really don't care about them sounding exactly like a CD. I can't tell the difference. To be honest with you, I, like millions of other iTunes users, don't really care about sound quality. I'm not buying songs from them for anything more than casual listening. Why I am buying from them, is because I have never gotten a song from them that had a skip in it or that was incomplete or that had trouble downloading like I have when I would steal music. I'm buying from iTunes because they give me a consistant product. iTunes, to me, is like Budweiser; Many people can't, for the life of them, understand why anyone would drink such a bland boring product when there's so many beers out there that are better, yet Budweiser outsells those beers tenfold. It serves the purpose for me, even if you don't like it.
So you're saying that iPod users are the Budweiser drinking NASCAR fans of the electronics world? Ok, I can't disagree with that.
Sure, if that's what you want to say, why not. But boy are you in a small little world if you think that all Budweiser drinkers are NASCAR fans. But while you say that with an obvious negative connotation, the fact is, that yeah, people that buy iTunes music aren't buying it for the pristine sound quality. Frankly, we don't care about that. If we want CD quality music there's a much easier way to get it: They're called CDs. They actually haven't stopped making those yet. I use iTunes all the time for the music I listen to on a day-to-day basis. But when a band I really like has a release coming up, I look forward to buying the CD to own as my own. I just don't understand why it's so horrible to listen to music in the form iTunes delivers it in. And clearly neither do millions of other people. Of course, I don't know why this even came up seeing as how you guys don't listen to CDs anyway. I mean being champions of the highest sound quality, I assume that you wouldn't dare rape your own eardrums with the low quality that CDs provide when there's DVD-audio out there also available.
I agree DRM is bad for everyone. It only hurts honest people trying to play by the rules. The pirates will download off of bittorent and other illigitimate sites. I rarely buy music from Itunes because of DRM. I prefer to get open & independent music from the following sites: http://magnatune.com/ http://www.mp3tunes.com/ http://www.emusic.com/ http://www.ind-music.com/ If you use ITunes I recommend using Sharpmusique which strips off the DRM when you download the file: http://www.nanocrew.net/software/sharpmusique/ It was created by the infamous DVD Jon now working for Michael Robertson of Linspire and MP3Tunes.com fame.
I like to avoid the NASCAR world altogether whenever possible. My previous post was purely sarcasm. Did I say it was? Some of us have questioned the declaration of the superiority of iTunes, but that's it. The current discussion is about electronic music sound quality. The reference to CDs was simply a way to convey what a certain bit-rate equals in terms the average consumer would understand. Personally I don't mind listing to varried quality in my music. I prefer at least CD quality whenever possible, but don't mind 128 bit if it's what I have. I currently don't have a audio system that would make the DVD and ultra-high bitrate quality recordings worthwhile. It is, however, a goal of mine to eventually acquire one.
It's not. The issue is really more that they are slipping in these limitations on the sly. It's about consumers being able to know what they are buying when they buy it. To go back to the game console comparison, no one buys a PS2 expecting it to play Xbox games. It never has, and no one has ever claimed it could. However, people did buy PS2s expecting them to play PS1 games, because they knew - for a fact - that it could. What if Sony pushed down a forced patch that removed PS1 game compatibility? DRM is a little more insideous than that. DRM removes rights from consumers - won in the courts - that consumers are not aware they will be losing. I have a legal right to make a backup of a DVD I purchase for personal archival. I could, for example, legally rip a DVD to hard drive, store the original safely away, and use the copy on the hard drive for viewing purposes. DRM aims to remove that right. DRM attacks fair use and right of first sale. DRM technology is what forces you to watch commercials at the beginning of a DVD you purchased, every time. Good examples and overview here.
The absolute worst part is that these companies (Sony is the worst) are claiming that DRM is for the good of the artists and the companies, but,in reality, it's not about piracy at all. It is about a pissing match between several companies (most notably Apple and Sony and the iPod and the different formats they serve) over market share, proprietary formats and manipulating consumers to pressure their competitors into giving in.
It's a scary business. Whomever get the standard for DRM gets rich, the other loses bigtime. Piracy, although a legitimate threat, is the leverage used to wedge it into place; just like Janet's Super Bowl boob was the catalyst for this new wave of morality going through government. It's the same with competing formats looking to replace the DVD. re: Sony Think back to the MD (minidisc); if Sony would have realized the potential of such a recordable format and made it readily and easily available on PCs back in those days they would have been the bomb. Instead, they locked it down tight and look where they are now. Sony also has proprietary memory stick technology; which somewhat locks my cousin who owns a Sony product into paying Sony prices and not being able to use it on other products (like I do with Compact Flash on my cameras).
That is absolutely what this whole thread is about - rights - or having them stripped away behind our backs. Mike and Americanfolklegend are kinda getting defensive saying they use and love iTunes. No one is telling them they're wrong or stupid. Lot's of people use iTunes and similar services, my brother included. iTunes is cool. But it's important for people to be informed about what is going on, and just proceed carefully, and be aware of the potential consequences. Frankly I hope this whole thread, and the blog linked to (as well as other infomration links - thanks Foosinho), is all unecessary paranoia. I hope that natural market forces will take care of the problem automatically so we don't have to worry about it. But I remain very very very skeptical. Natural market forces don't always take care of things - that's why there was rampant child labor durning the gilded age. That's why polution in Lake Erie was so bad at one time that it lit on fire. That is why, in the not to distant past, black people had to go to the back of the bus. That is why Microsoft is a convicted monopolist, as well as a convicted IP thief. I know how the big companies operate. They are all out to get a corner on the market of digital content, and they want to screw their competitors in the process, as well as hoover the consumers wallet in whichever way they can. If people here think that these big corporations have the consumer's best interests in mind, well, I've got a bridge in Brooklin I'd like to sell them. It's just reality. But the best defense against all of this DRM nonsense is a well informed content consuming public, and viable, DRM-less alternatives as Patrick did a great job of pointing out. Again, buyer beware.
I joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation about three months after the FBI seized Steve Jackson's computers. I even know who the Godwin in Godwin's Law is. I'm just not as concerned about DRM as some of you are. If it gets to the point where I can't burn CDs from music I purchase of iTunes, I'll find another source for purchasing music. Hell, if push comes to shove I'll go back to buying CDs again if I have to.
Bingo. I'm afraid that too many people will sleep right thru this until it's too late to do anything about it.
Yup. We need to spread the word on this to the general non-techie population. We're interviewing EFF chairman Brad Templeton on 11/9 on The Linux Link Tech Show. I'm sure DRM will be a major topic of discussion. Please listen live and join us on the irc. I'll post links to the ogg & mp3 files the next day.