Hilary Rosen Gripes About iPod, iTMS

mijkal writes "Hilary Rosen, the former RIAA CEO and chairwoman, has spoken out against Apple's "lock-in" with iPod and the iTunes Music Store." From the article: "The problem is that the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD's." Ironically, she appeals to consumer rights and anti-monopoly tactics."

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think my brain just died. Hilary Rosen is complaining about anti-consumer monopolies? This is like bizzaro world. The comments for this story write themselves, much like that Microsoft + Ford article about the car that will never crash.

Jack Valenti made a similar about-face after he retired. Does the *AA install some kind of behavior modification chip in their employees that gets taken out when they leave? (can we get one for a couple of the Slashdot editors?)

Well, she did insert that line about pirate sites being full of viruses (I get viruses form my mp3's al lthe time, god bless her), and soart of backhandedly danced around the fact that DRM and lossy music are the reason we can't transfer, so I guess the party line is stil lsorta there. Oh well.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[SatanicPuppy (611928)]

Steve Jobs, Let my Music Go

Fricking cow. Why don't YOU and all the lawsuit happy pricks on your side let OUR music go.

That's some fricking gall to blame Steve Jobs for Apples answer to the RIAAs psycho DRM paranoia.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[Rei (128717)]

In Future News today, the RIAA headquarters in sunny Washington, DC was completely destroyed when a large mass of irony accidentally fell off an aircraft and crashed into the building.

Rescue workers were quick to arrive at the scene, but surprisingly found no casualties.

"Apparently, the building was only staffed by vampires - bloodthirsty creatures who feed on the blood, sweat, and tears of the living - and they proved immune to the effects of such irony" said a broke-musician turned fireman that was among the first to arrive at the scene.

The irony broke free shortly after a Boeing-767 carrying lawyers to file papers against an entire sixth-grade class stopped at Ronald Reagan National Airport to take RIAA head Mitch Bainwol to a charity dinner for the school of the same children.

According to witnesses, the irony could be seen by bloody everyone; however, apparently it was not visible from within the RIAA headquarters itself. Washington DC mayor Anthony Williams has discussed potential legislation to force all employees of businesses within city limits to remove their blinders during working hours.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[dr bacardi (48590)]

I completely agree... and because simply laughing at it did not seem to do it proper justice, I actually went to the fridge and got a glass of milk, just to have something to snarf when I read it.

Thank you Rei.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[LordBodak (561365)]

Bull. The iTMS DRM exists because she (the RIAA) demanded it. Now she is complaining that they are using it? What a load of crap.

If they would've let the stores sell MP3s from the start, we wouldn't be in this situation.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[Aadain2001 (684036)]

In the RIAA's perfect world, you and I would pay every time we listen to a song, on every device that could possibly play the song. And if we didn't pay these fees every time, we would end up in Siberia and never be heard from again.

Apple actually aknowledges than when a person buys a song/album, they should be able to listen to it in their car, on the MP3 player (iPod of course), their computer, etc. No, they don't think you should be able to stand on a street corner and hand out copies to complete strangers. Apple's solution is actually that happy medium where music companies get money for online music downloads and consumers get music in a form that is convenient and easy to move around their different listening devices. So yes, the OP had a legitimate gripe and Hillary Rosen is just being moronic and trying to twist reality into something it isn't.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[jaseparlo (819802)]

For ten thousand years culture has been the property of its society. People shared music to build their culture, in the same way that they shared stories and pictures. Till the last few hundred years or so when profit became more important than culture. In current Western society we do the same thing. Ever since the creation of blank tapes, and maybe before, teenagers copied music to share with their friends, to create their own cultural identity. When the majority of the people are engaged in this, but small but wealthy groups like the RIAA can control and alter our rights to do so, we no longer have the right to call ourselves a free democratic society. The whole DRM thing means now that we are often restricted from copying a CD we own to another format (MP3 or whatever) for our own personal use. That's 'our' music.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[stor (146442)]

assuming you're a fellow, how about i come over to your house and "share" your wife / partner?

Seriously I don't know how people can use this emotive and inappropriate analogy. It's used for the GPL too.

For fuck's sake: There is a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE between sharing copyrighted works and sharing someone's wife. One is copyright infringement, the other is adultery.

Cheers
Stor

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[ryusen (245792)]

not everyone who is against the RIAA supports music piracy. some of us are grown adults who just want things liek ot be able to get the music we want to buy and play it on any music player we own (much liek apprently hillary wants). we don't want to be hampered by anti-copyign schemes which restricts our fair use rights, costs us money, and in the end do next to nothing to stop the REAL pirates.

you wanna share my wife? that's a different story. let's talk about something that really is property? change that to a car. want to borrow my car? not likely. want to make an exact copy of my car and leave mien intact and not hamper me in any way, feel free.

as for the "laws" the RIAA is enforcing... in case you didnt' know.. they bought those laws, to serve their own interest. they took the original copyright laws, which were intended to give the artist a LIMITED time to recoupe some money from their work, then be contributed to the public domain and changed them so that the middle men, who have nothign to do with the creation or performign of the music make most of the the money. artists went broke long before P2P.. it's because the industry is ripping them off far worse than any pirate ever has.

i also contend that there would be no music if there were no copyright laws.. history proves otherwise. people who want to make music will make music. especially in this day and age, it's very easy for a small time artist to make music and get it distributed, even if he/she doesn't want to make any profit from it.

A simple solution

[sterno (16320)]

Fortunately for Hilary Rosen, there's a simple solution to this problem. All she has to do is go download a copy of Hymn, which will peel off all the license restrictions from the ITunes file. Then she can play her music anywhere.

Re:A simple solution

[Soul-Burn666 (574119)]

"The problem is that the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD's."

She said the iPod only accepts iTunes tracks and songs she ripped from her CDs, but not from OTHER stores.
That's what she's complaining about!
She doesn't care that people rip music from their own CDs!

Pot, meet Kettle

[Anonymous Coward]

free of the viruses of the pirate sites

Her own organization, the RIAA, hires people to create and distribute those viruses to deliberately infect P2P sites. I wonder if Hillary Rosen ever met the truth.

Re:Pot, meet Kettle

[Anonymous Coward]

Her own organization, the RIAA, hires people to create and distribute those viruses to deliberately infect P2P sites. I wonder if Hillary Rosen ever met the truth.

I know you don't hold "Hit Me Baby, One More Time" in high regard, but calling it a "virus" is not very fair to Ms. Spears. If she sees this it might hurt her feelings.

This shouldn't surprise you

[phorm (591458)]

It's not about whether copyright is good or bad, it's simply this:

Makes me/our company/our friends lots of cash, probably at your expense: good

Gives you freedoms/etc at our expense: bad

locked into Apple's DRM != freedom

[Moraelin (679338)]

Now I'm not arguing that the RIAA is good or anything, and yes, it's just about money.

But arguing that Apples DRM in any way means "Gives you freedoms/etc at our expense" for RIAA, is the epitome of hypocrisy. It gives you exactly what freedom? The "freedom" to have exactly one choice of online music?

Apple _is_ using two products in a way that each keeps you pretty much locked into the other. Same as, you know, Microsoft loves to use its own products to enforce a monopoly.

In fact, _that_ is MS's monopoly. It's not just "waah, they're evil because they have money", it's that each product reinforces the other, as to (A) make it painful to break out of that vicious circle if you're already hooked, and (B) make it a painfully high entry barrier: if you want to compete with Windows you have to pretty much compete with all of them at the same time.

So why is it good and "freedom" when Apple does it?

Want to know what's REALLY funny?

[Moryath (553296)]

The problem is that the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD's. But those other music sites have lots of music that you can't get at the iTunes store. So, if you have an iPod, you are out of luck. If you are really a geek, you can figure out how to strip the songs you might have bought from another on-line store of all identifying information so that they will go into the iPod. But then you have also degraded the sound quality. How cruel.

Y'know what? None of my MP3 collection has "degraded sound quality."

If any of the stores wanted to, they could easily sell me MP3's, which would go onto my iPod no problem. But they won't, because the RIAA still haven't wised up that consumers don't want their DRM crap.

No, now we get Hilary Rosen, mouthpiece of the RIAA for so long, whining about how "Apple" stops their songs from going onto the iPod rather than whining about how none of the stores are willing to sell a song in a format the iPod will take.

Give me a fucking break.

Re:Want to know what's REALLY funny?

[masklinn (823351)]

a) Who said anything about "free"? I'd be happy to _buy_ MP3s

You shouldn't. Being happy to buy FLAC/MonkeyAudio (lossless compression) files I can understand, gladly buying mp3 files I have trouble understanding, especially with the kind of "deals" you get right now, with mp3/wma files being the same price as the CD track... only with lower quality and less flexibility

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[petsounds (593538)]

Don't be so naiive. Rosen is a professional shill. She's probably getting paid by Microsoft (since she namechecks them in her post) or whomever has the lack of wisdom to hire her to spin the iPod in a bad light in favor of "open" systems.

I guess she wasn't aware of the fact that there is an option in the iTunes menu which says "Convert selection to mp3," instantly making your AAC files into cross-platform mp3s. And she probably didn't realize her statement that "even if the cheapest one costs a few hundred dollars" is invalidated by going to the Apple website and seeing that the base iPod shuffle costs $99.

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[Scruffeh (867141)]

Ahh. Bless MS and their iPod bashing! Let us not forget gems such as, 'Let a professional make your next playlist.' and '...some come with extra accessories like high-quality headphones, a belt clip, or an armband. Because most of these features are included at no additional cost, make sure the device you choose is filled with these fun extras.'

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/devi ces/flash.aspx [microsoft.com]

I felt so much more educated after reading that! I wish my iPod had fun extras and I wish a professional would make my playlist for me because I miss adverts before, after and during my music!

Re:Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

[Spodlink05 (850651)]

I think my brain just died.

Then you're perfectly qualified to work for the RIAA.

HOAX

[muzzmac (554127)]

It's a hoax. Funny too.

The (Like Microsoft) was the clue for me.

The Reg covers it off.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/09/rosen_joke _jobs/ [theregister.co.uk]

Re:HOAX

[Absentminded-Artist (560582)]

Are you serious!?! Where is your sense of humor? Don't you realize the Register article is the satire!?! For crying out loud! They are mocking Huffinton's entire website by stating that Rosen's article is so obviously funny it must be written as a joke.

Rosen's article is so obviously a commercial for Microsoft's DRM that I couldn't bring myself to read anything else Huffinton's site offered. More shills no doubt.

Try rereading the Reg's article with a tongue planted firmly in your cheek. (^_-)

Who is kidding whom, Hilary?

[The I Shing (700142)]

"... the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD's."

I think Hilary Rosen might have encountered the concept of telling the truth at a party once, but didn't get beyond the cursory introduction.

I went ahead and RTFA to make sure the above statement wasn't being taken out of context by the post. It wasn't, and it might actually kind of be true if one is absolutely insistent on playing only AAC files on the iPod. The actual truth, which Hilary Rosen would likely not be willing to acknowledge without the threat of slow torture death behind it, is that the iPod works with sample MP3s that you might legally download from a band's website or any one of a gazillion legal indie music MP3 sites, and also works with audiobooks downloaded from Audible.com. But Rosen probably considers any music by an unsigned band to be beneath putting on an iPod anyway, and probably isn't too interested in audiobooks, either.

Other ridiculous ideas in the blog entry include: "He [Steve Jobs] is as laconically casually cool as Bono" and the idea that the iPod constitutes a monopoly. First off, Steve Jobs might be a little bit hip, but he's not cool except to the Mac faithful, the only ones who really care who he is (that's my opinion, though. I might be wrong). Second, a monopoly means that no-one can buy or use a product or service type by anyone other than a specific company. Ma Bell had a monopoly on phone service. There wasn't an alternative. There are zillions of alternatives to the iPod. The iPod is just really, really popular. That doesn't make it a monopoly.

The oddest thing to me is that no-one who would actually seek out and read Hilary Rosen's blog would be the least bit fooled by the misstatements in it.

Irony? Dripping with molten iron!

[ackthpt (218170)]

Huffington Post? I knew that name rung a bell, some background [ojr.org].

She writes: "I've got a confession to make. I'm talking weak-in-the-knees infatuation. But it's not Brad or Orlando or Colin or any of the cinematic hunks du jour who have set my heart aflutter. No it's Atrios and Kos and Joshua Micah Marshall and Kausfiles and Kevin Drum and Wonkette. Bloggers all. Yes, when it comes to the blogosphere, I'm a regular cyberslut."

Ok, tell us something we can't guess. So you have a new rag and you've got Hilary Rosen writing thus:

I spent 17 years in the music business the last several of which were all about pushing and prodding the painful development of legitimate on-line music. Now, the music fan is on the cusp of riches in their options - free of the viruses of the pirate sites.

Oh my... Has anyone seen my unawarded Humanitarian of the Millenium trophy around? I've got someone to give it to at last.

There are lots of places you can go for great music at good deals and with a deep catalog of songs from over the last 20 or 30 years. MSN.com, Rhapsody.com, aolmusic.com, even walmart.com. There are little players to make your favorite music even more portable than ever starting at as little as 29 bucks. Most every player device works at every one of these "stores" and it is pretty easy to keep all the songs, no matter where you got them, in a single folder or "jukebox" on your computer.

Or all your favorite pirated mp3's seems we've been here before.

But not the iPod. Most agree it is the best quality player on the market even if the cheapest one costs a few hundred dollars. The problem is that the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD's.

!Cough! Surely you jest, Hilary! What next will you be pushing? Fair Use? You commie!

But those other music sites have lots of music that you can't get at the iTunes store. So, if you have an iPod, you are out of luck. If you are really a geek, you can figure out how to strip the songs you might have bought from another on-line store of all identifying information so that they will go into the iPod. But then you have also degraded the sound quality. How cruel.

Yeah, how cruel. Seems when the big labels were withholding everything from us consumers we were somehow evil to rip and make our own mp3's. Only able to get what the powers that be (RIAA) felt we were worthy of (mostly whatever manufactured band or act they were currently exploiting and wanted us to buy into like so many lemmings. "Puny mortal, you are only worthy of Britney Spears Greatest Dance Songs of Last Week, with CD-ROM destroying anti-copy-protection, now BUY!") Now the stiletto heel is on the other foot?

keeping the iTunes system a proprietary technology to prevent anyone from using multiple (read Microsoft) music systems is the most anti-consumer and user unfriendly thing any god can do.

UltraGasp! This just can't be the same Hilary Rosen! Impostor!!!

Why am I complaining about this?

I dunno. Maybe you're a consumer now. Or just another cyberslut.

Re:Irony? Dripping with molten iron!

[Otto (17870)]

Perhaps she's complaining because she doesn't follow the party line that permeates your world - namely that customer lock-in and DRM are bad only when they come from Microsoft or someone else, but A-OK when they come from Apple.

No, it's bad coming from Apple too.

I agree that Apple should open the iPod up a bit, to let others make DRM'd AAC's for the device without resorting to Real's Harmony approach.

What the problem here is is that while Apple is promoting vendor lock-in a little bit, Microsoft, via, walmart, napster, and all the other WMA stores, is promoting not only format lock-in, but the most hideous DRM ever conceived by mankind.

If you want a portable music device that will delete your music by itself simply because you haven't connected it to a computer recently, then look into WMA10 and the "Plays For Sure" logo. Because that's what it does, and that's what it means. Go read the WMA10 SDKs, it's pretty clear once you get past the pretty diagrams.

Huffington Post shows up on /. their first day ...

[Hulkster (722642)]

The article is from the Huffington Post [huffingtonpost.com] the "blog of various mainstream media celibrities" which launched today. Impressive that they make Slashdot outa the gate - sounds like the lines are blurring even more between the traditional MSM media and the new online media. It will be interesting to see if they are able to maintain the daily grind of interesting articles ... or if they eventually becomes as exciting as watching grass grow ;-) [komar.org]

Childish

[TurboStar (712836)]

The RIAA asked for DRM. iTunes gave you DRM. Apple sees a way to leverage this technology to their advantage and you cry foul? Grow up.

Re:Childish

[DarkHelmet (120004)]

See, the RIAA only wants DRM that is to their benefit. If a person is going to be encouraged to download an mp3 off the Internet in order to listen to their music unincumbered, it points the person in the direction of piracy (even if they do own the song under fair use).

I'm absolutely sure that the RIAA would love people paying for 5 copies of the same song, but at least Rosen is coming to realize that people just won't do that. If a person downloads Kazaa in order to get an unlocked version of a song that they own and in turn finds 50 songs that they don't own, then it's flagged as a loss.

Every spokesperson acts and rallies in their own company's best interest. It's a fact of business, and a fact of life.

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

So what, does Warp Records just not exist? [bleep.com] And what about all those people all over the internet distributing mp3s of their own personally recorded music legally? Do they just not exist?

Oh, wait, I forgot-- those people aren't RIAA members. So I guess to Hillary Rosen, they don't exist.

Still, it seems awfully odd that "can play anything but WMA and FLAC" means "can only play personally ripped music and iTMS purchasers".

Clueless?

[Ironsides (739422)]

The problem is that the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD's.

Hmm... And whose fault would that be? If the Record companies didn't require DRM we wouldn't have to worry about this. Or does she want Apple to open up their DRM scheme?

Re:Clueless?

[linuxtelephony (141049)]

Now that the iPod and iTunes is an unquestionable success, could it be that the RIAA sees Apple as what they used to be? A primary controller of music distribution. And, we know RIAA knows how powerful that can be. I think they are afraid iTunes/Apple has a little much perceived power.

Afterall, it is easier for RIAA to "control" online music if there aren't any individually strong serious players. With a couple of really strong players in that field, it could become more difficult for RIAA to stay the master of their domain.

Just a thought, opinion really. No facts to back it up.

Re:Clueless?

[TrippTDF (513419)]

One of the great things about mp3 is that a lot of bands can get bigger attention without having the distribution network (I.E. CD stores) that they used to need. Apple is starting to control music the way the RIAA used to. If they wanted to go "all the way", they should make it easy for any band to open up shop and sell through the iTMS.

The current generation of music stars will stick with their labels (or be forced to), but new, unheard-of bands can gain popularity and make money off their music. They won't need a label, other than iTMS, and the RIAA will go down the tubes real quick.

Then Apple will have a stranglhold on the music industry. They will then force every song added to the iTMS to include a lyric about buying a Mac. Soon, Microsoft and Dell will crumble. Apple will be left standing along in a sea of dead computer companies, all because of a freaking music player.

Re:Clueless?

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Yes, well. If Jobs really wants to kick the RIAA in the teeth, all he has to do is open a chain of professional recording studios. All Mac based, of course (hell of a plug for the Macintosh in and of itself) and hire some quality engineers to staff them. Implement a torrent-style download system so distribution costs are effectively zero and marketing as such is handled by iTunes. He would probably attract every non-aligned musician (and many of those who are under contract to RIAA members) in a heartbeat. And if he paid musicians, say, 75% of the sales price of the music and kept the rest ... well. iTunes might make a profit (rather than being the near-loss-leader that it is.) If nothing else that would truly put the fear of God into the RIAA.

From TFA

[SithLordOfLanc (683305)]

"If you are really a geek, you can figure out how to strip the songs you might have bought from another on-line store of all identifying information so that they will go into the iPod."

The former head of the RIAA pointing out that the only way to listen to your legally purchased music on an iPod is to break the DRM. That's rich.

Problem?

[payndz (589033)]

"The problem is that the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD's."

And some obscure audio file format. What's it called? Oh, yeah. MP3.

Source: Ariana Huffington's Celeblogs

[mrex (25183)]

I'd just like to take this opportunity to congratulate Ms. Huffington on giving a voice to the silently oppressed celebrities and powerbrokers out there, who have for so long struggled to get their valuable messages out to the anxious public.

Truly, it warms my heart to see come to fruition the hopeful idealism of a youth spent dreaming of a world where who a person is matters as much or more than what that person is saying!

Thank you, Ariana.

Because Walmart gives me a choice ....right.

[newdamage (753043)]

I own an iBook, I own an iPod, and I've never had any gripes about not being able to buy music online from anywhere else besides the iTMS. Why? Because Apple makes it easy for me to purchase a song and get it on my iPod with very little hassle.

But hey, I'll take Hilary's advice here and navigate over to walmart.com and see what I'm missing by not being able to buy music from there. But wait, what this? IE 5.5 required to buy music? Well, gee, I guess Walmart is the paragon of a quality music buying service, even though I can't use their service because they only support one browser!

This isn't about Apple's lockin with the iPod and the iTMS, this is about Apple's lockin vs. everybody else's lockin on Windows machines.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have to have an approved player right now just to use Napster as well.

Re:Because Walmart gives me a choice ....right.

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (813746)]

This isn't about Apple's lockin with the iPod and the iTMS, this is about Apple's lockin vs. everybody else's lockin on Windows machines.

This is sort of correct. Except Apple lets Windows users join in on their lock-in and you're forgetting Real who would be happy to lock-in windows and mac users, but has not managed either.

Actually, I do agree with Miss Rosen in that I think if we have to have DRM, it should be an open standard DRM that is not owned by MS or Apple. Of course it should be legally mandated an so MS can't break the law and embrace and alter it. On the other hand, I just buy all my music without DRM in the first place and I really wish the media would stop portraying DRM as having something to do with pirating. Anyone can pirate DRM'd music. If you can hear it, you can record it. This is about controlling what people who legitimately bought music do with it. And I think the RIAA has some very hard questions to answer regarding that. If only the media was not owned maybe someone would have the balls to ask them on camera.

Only works with itunes?

[bigbigbison (104532)]

Wow [audiolunchbox.com], that's [emusic.com] news [audible.com] to [bleep.com] me [livedownloads.com]. Who [epitonic.com] knew [betterpropaganda.com]?

That's rich

[jimfrost (58153)]

I can't help but be amused at this when my iPod is stuffed to the max, plus a whole lot, and I've never made a purchase on iTunes. I did have to rip every song on all of my hundreds of CDs, but that's only because the recording industry would not allow anyone to sell me the music in a form that I could use on any extant player.

Jobs was unique in finding a way to make the harsh restrictions placed on downloaded music by the recording industry palatable to a wide audience and profitable to boot.

Seeing as Apple took the risk and won, I think it's unreasonable to ask them to give up the fruits of their labors. As an Apple shareholder I'd hold Jobs culpable if he ever did such a thing. I say to Jobs: "Milk it for all it's worth." Especially since there are plenty of competitors out there to keep him honest. The iPod doesn't have a monopoly because Apple locked everyone else out of the market, ala Microsoft, it has one because it's better.

If you don't like the fact that you can't play your Windows Media songs on the iPod, buy a different player ... or do what I do and buy the physical CD and convert it into whatever format you prefer. I get my CDs primarily from Amazon.com, but never from Apple.

And Hillary, if you don't like the myriad proprietary forms of DRM on downloaded music, consider the fact that it's your fault it's there in the first place.

Look closer...

[Otto (17870)]

You really must be blind not to see the idea behind this one.. She's pushing Microsoft WMA10 format. Simple as that.

WMA 10 has some nifty little features with it:
- Specifically designed such that *only* Microsoft approved devices can receive the music. They don't make the device themselves of course, they just sell licensing schemes.
- What do you think that whole "Plays For Sure" certification is all about? It's about the most restrictive DRM ever developed. A "Plays For Sure" device is certified to be capable of ERASING your music, by itself, if you don't reenable it every so often by connecting it to your computer. How do you think the new Napster-To-Go actually works?

She states it pretty clearly here, in fact:
If you are really a geek, you can figure out how to strip the songs you might have bought from another on-line store of all identifying information so that they will go into the iPod.

Exactly. You have to remove that violently horrible DRM in order for Microsoft's products to work on your iPod. Let's not forget that Microsoft WMA10 came out into a market where the iPod was king. They're not interested in compatibility, they're interested in owning the market by owning the format and controlling the devices and stores themselves that way.

I admit that Apple has been a bit stupid with regards to compatibility. Specifically breaking Real's Harmony software should have been beneath them.

However, if walmart.com wanted to sell AAC files, those AAC files would play on the iPod just fine. It plays un DRM-encumbered music like nobody's business.

Follow the money

[hellfire (86129)]

The latest fad in american business and politics is to spread FUD like it's going out of style. In post 9/11 america, it works way too well, especially for a people who lost the ability to reason a long time ago, if they ever had it.

This may seem like an incredibly stupid thing to say, but in reality you just have to follow the money. The RIAA doesn't like the iTunes model because Apple has this segment of the market locked up real nice because their system works so well for 90% of the American public. With power comes control of the cash. If the RIAA tries to leverage itself against iTunes, the egomaniacal Jobs will push back, because he likes using his power.

Market power translates directly to money, for all those who don't understand why companies like Microsoft have $40 billion in the bank. Apple has a lot of say over what gets sold and for how much. Too much for the comfort of the RIAA.

Bottom line, The RIAA wants to chip away at iTunes' power and get more of it themselves. The more power they get, the more money they get. And Joe consumer will buy it because only those educated in the supply chain of music understand the details.

Clarification please

[UnknowingFool (672806)]

But those other music sites have lots of music that you can't get at the iTunes store. So, if you have an iPod, you are out of luck.

To clarify, if you have an iPod (which plays mp3, wav, aac, and Apple's DRM aac version Fairplay.), you cannot download music from other websites like Wal-mart which uses the proprietary DRMed Windows format wma. So you want Apple to adopt somebody else's DRM?

Remember this simple fact: The standard default file format for 99% of all portable media players is mp3 not wma not Fairplay. Apple supports that default format. They will not support somebody else's format that is not the standard.

Re:Clarification please

[amliebsch (724858)]

So you want Apple to adopt somebody else's DRM?

Why not? Woudn't it be of benefit to consumers? Or better yet, how about Apple licensing their DRM liberally, like Microsoft does, so that we can play our iTMS songs on other-than-Apple devices? How would this hurt the consumer?

For the last time....

[mblase (200735)]

but when, oh when, will Steve Jobs let me buy music from somewhere other than the Apple iTunes store and put it on my iPod?

They do. They're called CDs. You still sell music on those, right?

Feedin' the troll, feedin' the troll...

[Thud457 (234763)]

She's a human being, that's umpossible! [wikipedia.org]

Re:Girlfriend

[The I Shing (700142)]

American women who are straight refer to female friends as "girlfriends," with no sexual connotation. An American straight man cannot have a "boyfriend," nor can he have a "girlfriend" without whom he's not in some way romantically or sexually involved. It's just a quirk of the American English language, I believe.

Re:Girlfriend

[Elwood P Dowd (16933)]

Yes, that is true. Also, Hilary Rosen is gay. This has been out of the closet longer than she's been in the public spotlight, as far as I know.

Re:Girlfriend

[Locke2005 (849178)]

I beleive it is common knowledge that Ms. Rosen is a lesbian. However, let's despise her for being a shameless spokesperson for anybody willing to pay her to do so; her sexual preferences should be irrelevant.

Re:Girlfriend

[ultramk (470198)]

Yeah, she's lesbian. She's been pretty public about this for years, so it's not exactly news.

What's more, it doesn't have anything to do with anything: slam her for lying to Congress, lying about what dire straits the music industry is in, and wanting to throw kids in jail. There are plenty of things to complain about, but insulting her sexuality (which I see people do pretty often) is uncalled for, and casts all opponents of the RIAA gestapo in a bad light.

m-