Nickname: e:leaf

Review: Yes, Apple has the right to make money from iTunes and the iPod. What they (and every other company which ties DRM to specific ecosystems) do not have the right to do is lock people into specific ecosystems. When the iPod is no longer relevant how will I take all my songs on the go? And please don't say that "you can burn your music and re-rip." I shoouldn't have to go through a very long and tedious process (1 CD may not be bad, but hundreds is asking too much) just to listen to music for which I have paid for.

Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 11:04 PM

Nickname: Jake

Review: Greg, Sorry but - what law? And if it were a law that you had to include DRM, why would the keyword be "choose"? It sounds like you have some pretty serious internal biases that are preventing you from thinking critically about DRM. For your information - there is no law regarding DRM. In fact, users have the right, under the copyright doctrine of fair use to copy their media from one format to another. Apple's products are very white, and very shiny - but that doesn't mean you should format your legal rights to use them - or, more importantly, your ability to make any kind of objective analysis as to their value.

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 7:27 PM

Nickname: tiffany

Review: It seems rather outrageous that they are complaining about itunes' limits of use when playstation and xbox do the exact same thing. You don't hear people complainng about how you can only play games made for and specifc to playstation only on a playstation. It's nothing new, just in a new area.

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 4:07 PM

Nickname: Seth Schoen

Review: Thanks to BusinessWeek Online for the coverage. I was one of the protestors in San Francisco, and I created the Steve Jobs flyer. I think Steve Jobs was right to make that statement in 2002, when he was experiencing difficulties negotiating with the music industry (and political pressure over his "Rip, Mix, Burn" campaign). Apple's subsequent success in those negotiations and in setting up a popular music store seems to have obscured the urgency of his point. I've responded to some of the comments here on my blog: http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/NewsBruiser-2.6.1/nb.cgi/view/vitanuova/2006/06/15/1

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 1:33 AM

Nickname: Norm

Review: Hey, no fighting please. :-) It is really simple. BUY the CD (and all the songs you don't really want :-) ) and put your new music on iTunes. Plug it into any mp3 player you want. :-) ---- Want high quality, low cost, ability to play it anywhere for next to nothing, etc, etc, etc.? So, I want world peace, what else is new!! :-) Norm

Date reviewed: Jun 15, 2006 6:49 PM

Nickname: Doug Henning

Review: This is crazy. So you want to use your iTunes purchased songs on a device other than the iPod or software other than iTunes. Here's how. Burn your iTunes purchased song to a CD. Rip the song off the CD as a MP3. Taa Daa, restrictions gone. The slight loss in quality and difficulty to do so ensures the record companies that this won't proliferate illegal song swapping. But it's certainly possible, and it's definitely easy. Let's move on to the next ridiculous accusation... how about iTunes has the ability to play the songs too loud!!!

Date reviewed: Jun 13, 2006 12:46 PM

Nickname: In the Know

Review: To those who say it's possible to bypass iTunes DRM by copying onto a CD and downloading to another device as an MP3: When you convert your compressed iTunes to a CD format you reduce the quality of the music, because the music is uncompressed in the process. When you take this and recompress it back into say an MP3 so it plays on another non iPod device you have made the quality even worse! I am sick and tired of hearing people say you can burn it and change the format. Yes you can, and you can also take the Hope Diamond and change it into 100 necklaces... either way you destroy the quality! This leads ignorant people to hear these iTune mp3s on different devices and complain that the sound is worse than on the iPod! It's a simple fact of the laws of lousy compression!

Date reviewed: Jun 13, 2006 3:43 AM

Nickname: john

Review: First, to clear up something the first post in this thread stated, Apple does make a profit from iTunes. The songs cost about .65 each and are resold for .99. Apple gives nothing away, even at cost. The real reason for the protests is the proprietary file format Apple uses for the iPod. Just about all other music formats, mp3, WMA, etc., will work on many devices without conversion. Apple's AAC format is for iPods only and Apple means to keep it that way. Nor will they allow anyone else to use that format for any reason. The name for all of this is "fair play", which is kind of ironic since it's fair only to Apple. They have to protect the iPod franchise as it is the only thing that's kept them alive these last few years. If it weren't for that, Apple would have faded into obscurity long ago.

Date reviewed: Jun 13, 2006 3:02 AM

Nickname: niceday

Review: iTunes was created to be compatible with Apple. If other MP3 players had the ability to create software that was only compatible with their own players, they wouldn't be complaining. But maybe Apple could add a component to iTunes that will allow them to sell their software to those MP3 companies who don't have ability to do so.

Date reviewed: Jun 13, 2006 2:30 AM

Nickname: JuggerNaut

Review: What about Microsoft and its closed-platform DRM initiative? PlaysForSure is a Windows-only phenomenon tied to iPod wannabes! Microsoft is just as bad as Apple on this front, just at the other end of the DRM stick. So until the Defective by Design dudes hold everyone with closed DRM solutions accountable, it's hard to take them seriously. I support their cause, but they need to make a bigger hammer and smash the whole DRM widget or it's just plain and simple hypocrisy!

Date reviewed: Jun 13, 2006 2:15 AM