Apple’s DRM vs audio-books
p2pnet.net News:-Public libraries across the US are letting patrons download titles they can listen to on home computers or portable music players. But there’s a fly in the ointment.
Apple’s ACC DRM.
The leading library services offer Windows-friendly audiobook files that can’t be played on Apple Computer Inc.’s massively popular iPod player, says the Associated Press.
Vendors have licensing deals with publishers and provide digital books using the Windows Media Audio format from Bill and the Boyz, which includes copyright protections.
A borrower downloads from a library Web site and when the audiobook is due, if it`s not renewed, the file still sits on the listener`s computer, but encryption makes it unplayable beyond the borrowing period, says AP.
It has In-Stat, a technology research company, saying nearly 28 million portable audio players were sold last year, 21 million of whch were iPods, complete with Apple`s AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format ludicrously named FairPlay DRM, which won`t work with Windows.
Just as the lack of a standard digital audio format has fragmented the music download market, it affects audiobooks, says AP.
Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said the company has no plans to change its copy-protection formats and would not comment on the incompatibility issue, adds the story.
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See:-
Associated Press – Libraries Offering Audiobook Downloads, August 25, 2005
August 26th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
“complete with Appleâs AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format ludicrously named FairPlay DRM, which wonât work with Windows.”
This statement is patently false. FairPlay DOES work on Windows, as any Windows user who has purchased music from iTunes can tell you.
Check your facts, please.
August 26th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
AAC is an ISO format with a variety of patent holders. AAC is the audio format for MPEG-4 format. It is not Apple’s format at all. AAC files play in a variety of devices including the iPod.
Fairplay protected AAC format is what Apple uses for iTunes music store downloads. These files can only be played by iPods when synced using the iTunes software on a computer authorized to play these files. When I mention iPod and iTunes, please note that this is not Mac limited. iPod/iTunes works the same way on Mac and Windows computers.
None of the Microsoft solutions for DRM work on Macs.
Audible.com has licensed Fairplay and Audible.com audio books are available for iPod users (both on Macs and Windows). I agree that Apple should make a deal with the libraries to offer their books on the iTunes/iPod platform but blaming Fairplay DRM is ludicrous.
August 26th, 2005 at 5:41 pm
You beat me to it. A more factual way of stating this, is that audio book companies are choosing to partner with Microsoft which limits you to a single platform, instead of rivals Apple Computer (which supports Windows and Mac) or Real Networks (which supports windows and some support for the iPod…though they have DRM for iPod, it appears their subscription services do not yet work with the iPod).
Another good match would have been for libraries to somehow partner with Audible .com. They work with several platforms and Apple’s iPod.
Now, the question is, had Apple, Real, and/or Audible been approached to do this and turned down the offers. That I don’t know.
August 26th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
All of the effort going into developing these ‘unbreakable’ DRM schemes can be rendered totally useless by getting a patch cord with two mini (1/8″) stereo jacks on it. Plug one end into whatever DRM-crippled device is hosting the holy and sacred copyrighted content, plug the other into the soundcard input on another computer (or better yet, a high end sound processor (e.g., E-Mu 4400) or video card, and run one of the many fine analog recording/capture programs that’s available, many free for the downloading. If you want it back in a digital format, convert the .wav file back to mp3 or your favorite format. And now you have a DRM-free copy of content in question at nearly equal, or perhaps better (depending on your equipment) quality than the original.
Oh dear, am I in trouble now because I might have violated the anti-circumvention provision of the DCMA? Well, I better not tell you about how holding down the shift key while loading a CD disabled the earlier versions of a highly touted CD copy protection system then….
August 26th, 2005 at 7:07 pm
Some people will never like such features as Fairplay, but as far as finding a middle ground, Fairplay is just what its name implies. It allows protection for the copyright holder and it allows me to make a number of copies of and use downloaded music in certain, spelled out ways. If I can burn a CD, I can move things elsewhere. Besides, other than sharing the music to another machine via rendezvous or burning a CD or putting it on a set number of iPods, I listen to it on my iPod or Mac. How is that really limiting my use 99% of the time?
Microsoft’s solution is not more open? That’s a red herring and we all know it. Sure, I have choice of different MP3 players or perhaps music stores, but so what. The music is music, the player a player. Apple offers, IMO, the best solution. All that is my way of saying tht claiming Apple is hindering the rollout of digital music is bunk. Apple’s solution runs on the two platforms that cover 90%+ of all computer users and Microsoft just covers Windows. So Microsoft again short shrifts Mac OS users and Apple is the bad guy? Please!
August 26th, 2005 at 7:14 pm
You’re talking about re-recording each and every song you download? You are lame, huh? Are you such a cheap, tight-wad that you’d go to all that trouble just to free yourself from “holy and sacred copyrighted content”? Oh yeah, screw the musicians and artists making the music. Who cares, right? Never mind that that this is how they make their living.
How would you like to find out that for the last few years someone has been “stealing” or siphoning hours from your timecard at work? What’s that? Oh, yeah, right… you don’t work… that’s why you steal music… do you only confine your theft to music? What about software? Steal that too? What about a fine watch? Jewelry? Food? Newspapers?
When you get down to it… you’re just a thief. Plain and simple.
August 26th, 2005 at 9:39 pm
Not a thief, someone who infringes copyright.
There is a difference.
And since music can be recorded off radio stations and shows and movies off TV stations, I recommend we encourage copyright holders to refrain from using these forms of communication. It’s all about the copyright and Sonny Bono pushing extensions for the corporate overlords who would rather not work but live off someone else’s ideas.
Kind of like Disney, that for some bizarre reason holds copyrights on fairy-tale works that used to be in the public domain.
REFORM COPYRIGHT NOW!
September 21st, 2005 at 2:59 pm
October 6th, 2007 at 5:32 am
I’d like to see one common format, that way we all don’t have to worry which format for which device, etc.