p2pnet - rss feed: RealNetworks vs Apple
p2pnet.net News:- Does this look familiar?
Apple won’t allow RealNetworks to license its seriously misnamed FairPlay consumer-control DRM technology.
So Real, which supports its own Helix format as well as Windows Media Player, says it’s figured out a way to allow people to buy Real tracks and hear them on any player, including iPods - whether Apple likes it or not.
After all, says Real in effect, it’s only fair that people should be able to do that.
Does this mean Real will soon be receiving a Cease & Desist letter from Apple’s lawyers?
There was a storm in April when a home-made application called PlayFair turned up. It decodes iTunes protected-AAC files to unencrypted AAC files without quality loss so people can play tracks for which they’ve paid better-than-good money on whatever system they choose.
“I buy all of my music,” said the author at the time. “In fact, most of the music I buy I buy from the iTunes Music Store. However, I want to be able to play the music I buy wherever I want to play it without quality loss, since I PAID FOR that quality.
“I want musicians to make money. I want Apple to make money. I don’t condone sharing music through P2P networks with the masses, though I believe making a mix CD or playlist for a friend is okay. I also think the RIAA are a bunch of crooks, but that’s another story.”
It’s called Fair Use.
Apple stomped it, it reappeared, Apple stomped it again and then PlayFair turned up yet again, only this time as Hymn.
Not only but also, Jon Lech Johansen of Hollywood, QuickTime for Windows AAC memory dumper and DeDRMS fame recently released FairKeys.
Now, “without Apple’s authorization, RealNetworks will start to give away software that will allow people to buy and download songs from its online music store and then play them on Apple’s popular iPod portable devices in addition to those that use the Windows Media Player format and RealNetwork’s Helix format,” says the New York Times here.
“This will be the first time any company other than Apple has sold songs for the iPod. While the Microsoft Corporation has freely licensed the Windows format to various music stores and makers of portable players, Apple has kept its business proprietary. This has helped Apple keep the dominant market share both for online music stores and portable players with hard drives, the more lucrative half of the player market.”
RealNetworks ceo Rob Glaser’s wanted an online music alliance with Apple aimed at stopping Microsoft in its tracks, but Apple ceo Steve Jobs didn’t want to know. Was that a mistake? Probably not. Real’s RealPlayer 10 has been described as both “both widely used and widely despised”.
With RealNetworks’ Harmony, coming in today as a beta, to all intents and purposes, “songs can be copied on up to five portable devices - including those from Apple, Creative, Rio, Samsung and others,” says the NYT, quoting Glaser as saying, “Our view is that if you buy a song, you aren’t buying it for that day or that month. You are buying it because you are buying it.”
According to the story, he also added that “he thought that RealNetworks’s software would help Apple fend off a coming attack from Microsoft because it allowed customers to use an iPod today while preserving their option to use a device with the Windows format later”.
July 26th, 2004 at 8:22 pm
Duh, the iPod already plays tracks not “bought” from the ITMS — they’re called MP3’s.
It seems to me that Apple shouldn’t care in the least about this — it would be Microsoft, Napster, Puretracks et al who use Windows Media Player format (WiMP) who should be upset.
As I read it, this is a WiMP DRM stripper, not an iTunes DRM stripper.
Why would Apple care? This is good news for the iPod (if not for the ITMS).
July 26th, 2004 at 8:33 pm
I’m afraid that there is some confusion here.
My iPod will play all sorts of file-types; perhaps not WMA, but most others. And if I was to purchase WMA files, iTunes will easily convert WMA into any file-type of my choice before uploading it to my iPod.
So exactly what has RealNetworks done? And how will my iPod experience be any better as a result of it?
I can already purchase music from RealNetworks and listen to it on my iPod.
Sad case of mass misinformation.
July 26th, 2004 at 8:46 pm
Agreed … as per this quote from PCWorld Mag:
<< However, there appears to be little downside for Apple, according to Tim Deal a senior analyst with Technology Business Research. RealNetworks does not appear to offer anything that would cause IPod users to switch to other devices, he says. In any case, while IPod hardware generates close to 14 percent of Apple revenue, the ITunes Music Store generates only about 3.6 percent of revenue, Deal says.
“The RealNetworks software might be attractive if they have exclusive content not available though Apple….but even so, why would an IPod owner bother to switch devices?” Deal says, noting that RealNetworks Music Store tunes can be played on IPods. >>
July 27th, 2004 at 10:41 am
Gee who does this remind you of?
It’s always the small guys that want to ’share’… seems logical.. look at Apple’s Desktop Apps.. they want MS to share, they want everyone else to go Open Standard… they look like Robin Hood..but when they have the dominant position they’re protective. Let’s be honest here.
And here’s Real, pretty much a nobody with annoying software (and a notoriously annoying website) begging for part of the action.
Will this scheme work? Uh.. okay, maybe, but not as well as the iTMS, so Apple will not want any part of it. Legally, Real may be out of the woods, but they won’t be promoting this break-even store with the same frenzy that Apple will promote it’s own.
So who stands to win? Well.. Real wins because its customers can now get in a (long, long, long) line for iPods…too bad they didn’t just download iTunes about 6 months ago, they could avoided this hassle.
Why on earth would anyone use one of those junky stores like Real or MusicMatch?