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I have an iPhone, and I have multiple Macs. It frustrates me that I cannot seamlessly move media between these machines and my iPhone. Last time I tried, Apple

I have an iPhone, and I have multiple Macs. It frustrates me that I cannot seamlessly move media between these machines and my iPhone. Last time I tried, Apple wanted to wipe all music currently on my phone before it would put music on from another computer. I may not matter to Apple, but this is an example of DRM degrading my experience after I paid them lots of money.

deleted 18y ago
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tptacek 18y ago
It frustrates me too, but let's be honest: we've accepted this frustration because the end user experience Apple provides is superior to the "open" alternative. We don't have a right to that experience; it's a product that Apple sells, with terms and conditions. I'm responding to an argument you didn't make, but it's an argument that I think is hovering in the air around us. It's hard to argue that the typical consumer --- the only one Apple should rationally care about --- is influenced by these issues. The iPhone is spectacularly popular, just like the iPod before it.
- jacobscott 18y ago
  The argument you didn't respond to is close but not exactly the argument I didn't explicitly make but was thinking of. DRM limits the ability of the consumer, and at best it is benign. RMS is actually not being outlandish when he calls it digital restrictions management. And for what? Do they actually succeed in making it harder for people who plan on pirating to pirate? How many of these people would buy the content if they couldn't pirate it? I think your recurring argument about "first x weeks" revenues is reasonable. But I see little benefit gained by content producers after that. All I see is a net negative for the customer. It may be more negative for me than a typical customer, but I think this difference may decrease in the future. For example, Amazon reviewers experiences with Spore :)
- SwellJoe 18y ago
  It's hard to argue that the typical consumer --- the only one Apple should rationally care about --- is influenced by these issues. The iPhone is spectacularly popular, just like the iPod before it. Is it? I've already noted a couple of cases where iTunes is hostile to users (non-iPhone MP3-capable phones and mobile devices, and netbooks running Linux, which are slowly but surely becoming more popular among "typical" consumers). I've never used iTunes so I don't know what other pains exist...but it sounds like you're aware of a few that I didn't know about. Every one of those frictions and pains is the difference between a good consumer experience and a bad one. When the balance tips, iTunes becomes the less attractive option, and all of the things that make Apple's user experience superior go out the window. For me, they never moved into the "superior" experience category, because not being able to play my music on my primary computer (which runs Linux) was a non-starter. For others, that difference is further out and perhaps not as obvious to people who only use Apple products. But, Apple market share is not that high and the small percentage it does have is not infallible. iPhone will never have a significant market share of phones that can play music (though it may be the most popular smart phone for the next year or two, even dumb phones are beginning to get MP3 players built-in), as it's too expensive for most folks. So as the next generation of phones comes along, a majority of which can play music, there's going to be an awful lot of people who can't carry their music with them, if they bought it on iTunes. I think it's a bit short-sighted to imagine that that won't have an impact. I don't think anyone would argue that Apple hasn't done amazing things given a problematic industry (without DRM, perhaps the iTunes store could not have existed...but Amazon Unbox, and its lack of DRM, gives us a clue that maybe keeping DRM is an unnecessary and unappealing component...though Apple now has a vested interest in keeping it, since it locks folks into devices that have licensed player codecs from Apple and keeps people coming back to Apple for permission). Anyway, my point was that iTunes loses some sales because of DRM. How many? I dunno. But I suspect it'll be more in the future.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

tptacek 18y ago

It frustrates me too, but let's be honest: we've accepted this frustration because the end user experience Apple provides is superior to the "open" alternative. We don't have a right to that experience; it's a product that Apple sells, with terms and conditions. I'm responding to an argument you didn't make, but it's an argument that I think is hovering in the air around us. It's hard to argue that the typical consumer --- the only one Apple should rationally care about --- is influenced by these issues. The iPhone is spectacularly popular, just like the iPod before it.

jacobscott 18y ago
The argument you didn't respond to is close but not exactly the argument I didn't explicitly make but was thinking of. DRM limits the ability of the consumer, and at best it is benign. RMS is actually not being outlandish when he calls it digital restrictions management. And for what? Do they actually succeed in making it harder for people who plan on pirating to pirate? How many of these people would buy the content if they couldn't pirate it? I think your recurring argument about "first x weeks" revenues is reasonable. But I see little benefit gained by content producers after that. All I see is a net negative for the customer. It may be more negative for me than a typical customer, but I think this difference may decrease in the future. For example, Amazon reviewers experiences with Spore :)
SwellJoe 18y ago
It's hard to argue that the typical consumer --- the only one Apple should rationally care about --- is influenced by these issues. The iPhone is spectacularly popular, just like the iPod before it. Is it? I've already noted a couple of cases where iTunes is hostile to users (non-iPhone MP3-capable phones and mobile devices, and netbooks running Linux, which are slowly but surely becoming more popular among "typical" consumers). I've never used iTunes so I don't know what other pains exist...but it sounds like you're aware of a few that I didn't know about. Every one of those frictions and pains is the difference between a good consumer experience and a bad one. When the balance tips, iTunes becomes the less attractive option, and all of the things that make Apple's user experience superior go out the window. For me, they never moved into the "superior" experience category, because not being able to play my music on my primary computer (which runs Linux) was a non-starter. For others, that difference is further out and perhaps not as obvious to people who only use Apple products. But, Apple market share is not that high and the small percentage it does have is not infallible. iPhone will never have a significant market share of phones that can play music (though it may be the most popular smart phone for the next year or two, even dumb phones are beginning to get MP3 players built-in), as it's too expensive for most folks. So as the next generation of phones comes along, a majority of which can play music, there's going to be an awful lot of people who can't carry their music with them, if they bought it on iTunes. I think it's a bit short-sighted to imagine that that won't have an impact. I don't think anyone would argue that Apple hasn't done amazing things given a problematic industry (without DRM, perhaps the iTunes store could not have existed...but Amazon Unbox, and its lack of DRM, gives us a clue that maybe keeping DRM is an unnecessary and unappealing component...though Apple now has a vested interest in keeping it, since it locks folks into devices that have licensed player codecs from Apple and keeps people coming back to Apple for permission). Anyway, my point was that iTunes loses some sales because of DRM. How many? I dunno. But I suspect it'll be more in the future.