p2pnet - rss feed: Apple reality-distortion field
p2p news / p2pnet: Earlier this year France passed legislation that would have forced Apple to make crappy iTunes downloads playable on devices other than merely iPods.
(iTunes, an Apple come-on for iPods rather than a genuine music service, charges $1 an up for lo-fi downloads worth only a few cents. The exorbitant price is down to the fact the Big Four record labels, under investigation in the US for price fixing, extort between about 60 and 85 cents wholesale for each digital file, meaning Apple and similar corporate ’services’ must pass the cost onto consumers if they want to feature ‘product’ from Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal or Sony BMG.)
But, “Steve Job’s fabled powers of persuasion - known by some as the Apple reality-distortion field - just aren’t as effective on the far side of the Atlantic,” says the Los Angeles Times.
“Government officials in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and France have been taking up one of consumers’ core complaints about Apple’s wildly popular iPods and online iTunes Music Store: They don’t work with competitors’ offerings. The efforts could lead the European Commission to seek compatibility requirements across the continent.
“The European proposals are driven by a desire to protect consumers and small businesses in the market for online media, where restrictive new technologies to limit copying are being introduced. The latest French plan, however, would effectively give copyright holders veto power over the technology used to deter piracy. Giving record labels and Hollywood studios more leverage over tech companies does not seem to be the way to help music fans, movie buffs or innovative consumer-electronics companies.”
The law would indeed have given power to competitors, but from the look of it, that’s not going to happen. “France has pulled back from an all out attack on Apple’s iTunes Music Store, watering down the law which nearly forced Apple to allow non-iPod users to listen to music from iTunes,” as The Register puts it.
“At the heart of the issue is a confounding array of incompatible technologies used by online music stores and portable players,” says the LA Times.
“Major record companies insist that their songs have electronic locks, but there are at least four kinds of locks being used by online music stores. And Apple will not give other companies the key to its locks.”
Download buyers, “can already work around compatibility problems by burning the songs they purchase onto CDs and converting them to MP3 files without electronic locks,” says the story.
“That’s a far better situation than having the government or copyright holders dictate which technologies will be allowed to compete.”
Is it?
Why should people have to resort to using this kind of thing to defeat digital restrictions (DRM) software - ridiculously named FairPlay, in Apple’s case - so they can to listen to music they’ve paid for, and usually through the nose?
Meanwhile, “The best thing about the online music market is that it is rife with competition and innovation,” declares the LA Times, and, “That’s not a market that cries out for regulation - even in France.”
Digg this story.
Also See:
crappy iTunes - Apple and its C.R.A.P., March 4, 2006
Los Angeles Times - French Apple mush, June 26, 2006
core complaints - Apple DRM problems grow, June 12, 2006
not going to happen - France bows to Apple, June 23, 2006
The Register - France dilutes plans for iTunes law, June 26, 2006
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June 26th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
Why is itunes “Crappy”? Surely the slick easy to use and reliable interface is half the reason so many people use it - wether they have ipods or not. As for low quality tracks “only worth a few cents” - musicians need to get some return on their talent - we have bills too!! The allofmp3 solution is never going to work if you want people to produce music you want to hear. In the end, nothing is free in this life if you really think about it.
June 27th, 2006 at 12:00 am
“The best thing about the online music market is that it is rife with competition and innovation,” declares the LA Times, and, “That’s not a market that cries out for regulation - even in France.”
what innovation? You innovate, and someone sues you back to the stone age.
June 27th, 2006 at 3:23 am
The musicians arent getting the returns. You only have to look up weird al’s comments about what he gets from cd sales compared to online sales to see that. You think he’s the only one the record companies have ripped off in that way?