iPod dictatorship
tsdev 2005-10-29
Comments (2)
Charle's Wright writes about legal ramifications of owning an iPod. For instance, did you know that you only have rights to download music to your iPod from an iTunes Music Store only? Any other source and you're breaching Apple's copyright, or that's what seems to be suggested. For the facts and associated commentary, dig into the responses to this article.
Buying trouble with the iPod?
http://blogs.theage.com.au/razor/archives/ipods/001383.html
Source: Razor, The Age
Comments
From:
Danny on 2005-11-10
The summary taken from the article is factually incorrect - it's not "Apple's copyright" that is broken if you put normal MP3s from your CDs in your ipod - it's Australian copyright law. You can buy MP3s from anywhere and legally use them in your iPod. Unfortunately, major record companies do not release their songs in MP3 format because of the lack of DRM - they use Windows Media instead - which has its own proprietary rights management technology with exactly the same issues. The only difference is that they license it to more manufacturers (hardly helps the person on the street, who is not going to build their own music player).
I realise that it's popular to critique cool and expensive consumer music products (for good reason) but a bit more attention to the substantive issues please! At least the comments on the linked article make it pretty clear what's wrong with it.
From:
Editor on 2005-11-14
Danny, thanks for the clarification. We are hoping people take time to read the responses to Charle's article.
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The summary taken from the article is factually incorrect - it's not "Apple's copyright" that is broken if you put normal MP3s from your CDs in your ipod - it's Australian copyright law. You can buy MP3s from anywhere and legally use them in your iPod. Unfortunately, major record companies do not release their songs in MP3 format because of the lack of DRM - they use Windows Media instead - which has its own proprietary rights management technology with exactly the same issues. The only difference is that they license it to more manufacturers (hardly helps the person on the street, who is not going to build their own music player).
I realise that it's popular to critique cool and expensive consumer music products (for good reason) but a bit more attention to the substantive issues please! At least the comments on the linked article make it pretty clear what's wrong with it.