Filed under: Audio, Video, News, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Apple
Apple's iTunes-iPod lawsuit
by Ryan Carter Jan 5th 2007 at 8:00AM
I know a lot of people who aren't very happy when they hear when they hear that the iPod does not work with other music services, or even mad that iTunes music can't be played on other devices. While most of them simply say, "aw shucks" and move on with life, I guess it really upsets some people. People like Melanie Tucker. She is an iTunes user who has now filed a class-action suit against Apple stating that the company violates anti-trust laws. Makes me think of the old (yet obscure) adage, "the sun doesn't shine on the same dog's butt every day." Last time around Microsoft had a bunch of legal matters to take care of, now it is Apple's turn to hack through the nonsense. I see the argument here, sure Apple shouldn't be so shall we say closed-minded, but we have all beat the horse to death on why. What lingers in my mind is what will this do to music in general? Is this more erosion of DRM? If Apple's method is to blame, they will change it and try to reinvent the wheel, at least a wheel that will allow more ubiquitous access to music and devices. Is really worth suing a company over? Are you mad about this issue and wish Apple would be forced to change their ways? I don't know that I care too much either way, but how do you feel. I wish it wasn't so hard to play all my music everywhere, no matter what a music download site has to do to give it to me, that is all I want. What about you?
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ryan said 10:19AM on 1-05-2007
if you don't like it, don't buy it. simple as that
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Samuel said 9:09AM on 1-05-2007
agree with u... me for example bought myself a Foston MP4 Player, who is exactly 6x cheaper than iPod and I can listen whatever music i wanna put in it, and watch any video i want, it has a mic that i can use to record almost 500 minutes of conversation and I can even use it to read pdf files... I don't know why u guys still buy this iPod shit...
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liam said 10:20AM on 1-05-2007
I agree, seems like this Melanie Tucker is after a slice of apple. Can she really be that bothered?
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Jeff Power said 10:21AM on 1-06-2007
Consumer rights have been under attack for a number of years. Basically making us all criminals before the fact.
I hope this starts a wave of anti drm. When I buy something I want to play it where I want on what I want with zero hassles.
I agree with Ryan above which is why I will not buy anything that limits my choice.
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Yatrik said 2:23PM on 1-05-2007
Awesome picture by the way. This one as well as the microsoft/sauron's eye sum up the two companies perfectly.
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iH8MelanieTucker said 11:29AM on 1-05-2007
I've never purchased a single song from iTunes (I own way too many CDs as it is, plenty to rip), but Melanie Tucker needs to get over herself. DRM is stupid, yes, and nobody should be buying anything BUT physical CDs until the labels wise up and stop treating us badly with ridiculous DRM restrictions. In the meantime, quit whining and buy an ipod or DON'T buy an ipod, but stop driving up our costs and distracting companies with lawsuits. Dummy.
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notnamed said 11:47AM on 1-05-2007
The iPod doesn't work with other music services? Better tell that to my nano full of music from a certain popular Russian service, I think it must be confused...
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Davin Peterson said 11:49AM on 1-05-2007
If you don't like the Apple iPod-iTunes integration, then don't buy and iPod. Instead check out the Creative Zen Vision:M, which kills the iPod with it's higher resolution screen (262,000 colors vs. iPods 62,000 colors), support more video formats, supports WMA and works with a variety of music stores and the music can be transfered to any device.
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Brady said 11:58AM on 1-05-2007
Apple has really been pissing me off lately with their whole iPod/iTunes deal. I recently bought an iPod Video and when I opened it, the packaging said "Don't steal music." Who do they think they are, acting like the moral police and any person that buys an iPod is going to steal music unless told not to.
I help maintain a country music blog, The 9513 ( http://www.the9513.com/ ), and we recently decided to run a contest to give away an iPod Shuffle with music preloaded on it with permission from the artists and labels themselves. The only problem now is that whoever wins the contest is going to be prompted to erase the frickin' thing as soon as they plug it in with iTunes running. This is completely and totally legal, but Apple in all their wisdom doesn't think it should be allowed. I know there are ways around it, but it shouldn't have to be that hard. Anyways, this is just some of my beef with Apple without going into DRM. They just need to get their act together. Just because they're good at marketing doesn't mean they can throw consumers' rights out the window.
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Ryan Carter said 11:50AM on 1-05-2007
Well, hold your nano up to your computer screen so I can talk to it...
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Bill said 12:05PM on 1-05-2007
I've resisted iPods from the get go just for the reasons Tucker is suing. I use a Sandisk Sansa. 2Gb, no DRM issues, about $70USD.
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Randy said 4:04PM on 1-05-2007
I think there's a case here. Apple has simply refused to license the DRM they use, and that's a problem... if Microsoft did this, there would be a jihad waged over it. To me, that makes this suit totally fine - I'm sick to death of Apple getting "special" treatment in the marketplace because they're the "underdog". That time has passed. I think Apple has been guilty of pushing a monopoly for their iPods and Macs a like. Consider the situation in the EU or Korea, where Microsoft was forced to ship a version of Windows without a media player and/or an IM client; why is OS X allowed to ship with iTunes and iChat built into it?
I think it'll help to bring parity to the market. And I'm not saying Apple needs to open their doors for free but they should be licensing their DRM... licensing means support but it also means revenue so it's hardly a pain point... they just haven't been forced to do anything about it yet.
Having said that, I also have to assume that Melanie isn't smart enough to burn the iTunes music to an MP3 and rip it back. *g*
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Thomas Trautman said 12:55PM on 1-05-2007
I hope this case actually goes somewhere. DRM is broken it was a stop gap put in place by the fat cats with the money. Something needs to be done to allow people to use digitally purchased music in the same manner store bought CD's are used.
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glacia00 said 1:28PM on 1-05-2007
While I'm far from being a MS fan there's a part of me that aches to say to all of the Apple fans who cheered the MS lawsuits, Apple deserves it.
They have always been more exclusionary and closed than MS. With the ipod they proved just as ruthless in pressuring suppliers to lock out competitors. In the past they flew under the radar by having a very small marketshare. Welcome to the world of greater than 2% marketshare Apple, you are the new MS.
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ryan said 5:21PM on 1-05-2007
the only right that the consumer has is to be delivered the product they purchased. apple can do whatever they please as long as they are honest about the product they sell. like i said, if you don't like the features of the product, don't buy it. apple is not obligated to deliver exactly what you want, you have a choice to buy what they offer
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glacia00 said 5:21PM on 1-05-2007
Thomas Trautman, while I agree 100% that current DRM implementations are bad, RIAA & Apple have proved that consumers will embrace DRM.
Itunes being the posterchild for the success of DRM, I can't see any argument that would convince RIAA to relax DRM. You only need to peruse blogs like this one to see people jealously defending and supporting itunes which is all RIAA needs to argue that consumers are enjoying the current state of DRM.
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Ankher said 4:22PM on 1-05-2007
I'd love it if this issue went somewhere: if Apple allowed its players to A) work w/other services (notnamed's nano excluded of course) and/or B) removed DRM on iTunes, the world would be a much better place. Of course, this is definitely wishful thinking.
(I am not defending Apple here) iTunes isn't the only music service that has DRM, the only one that doesn't, I think, is e-music (however you write it). Maybe the 'popular Russian service' doesn't either. Sigh. DRM should die :)
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soundoftheground said 11:40PM on 1-05-2007
well, you could buy cd's, rip them and put them on any portable device you want as many times as you want.
hard drive crashes? re-rip them. portable device dies? re-rip them. seems pretty simple to me.
anyone who is confined by DRM yet continues to support the product deserves to be...
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soundoftheground said 11:41PM on 1-05-2007
well, you could buy cd's, rip them and put them on any portable device you want as many times as you want. hard drive crashes? re-rip them. portable device dies? re-rip them. seems pretty simple to me. anyone
who is confined by DRM yet continues to support the product deserves to be...
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Jared said 12:57AM on 1-06-2007
Apple is using DRM.... whoopie. It's nothing new, and it sure doesn't deserve a lawsuit. If you didn't know that your music wouldn't play on your new player, than you didn't do your research that an INFORMED consumer is supposed. It is not the business's respoinsibilty to check that everything you wanted is there, just to tell you what you are buying. I have an iPod and it's integration with iTunes is wonderful. That said I hate the DRM and I wish I could connect other players to my computer and use my LEGAL music with them. However, as long as people buy the stuff, they have no incentive to change. So it's plain and simple. You don't want the iPod/iTunes monopoly.... get the world to stop using them.
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