3 ms·

> Had CDs been encrypted, iPods would not have been able to read their content, because the content providers would have been able to use their DRM contracts as

by pje 12y ago

> Had CDs been encrypted, iPods would not have been able to read their content, because the content providers would have been able to use their DRM contracts as leverage to prevent it. What? Why? Nothing would have prevented people from recording the playback of an encrypted CD and putting that on their iPod.

dublinben 12y ago
How well did that work for minidisc players?
zeidrich 12y ago
Sure it would. Apple would have not been keen to develop a technology that relied on illegal copying to start with. Copying music CD's was a grey area, but it's a grey area that you can do in a semi-legal capacity. There was no reason legally that Apple couldn't create a CD ripping process in iTunes. It's the user's responsibility to not use it illegally. However, if CDs were encrypted, Apple would get in trouble if they broke that encryption to let you copy CDs to your iPad. You could find some more shady 3rd party tools that would work around it, but Apple's whole model is that it's easy to use and that it just works. Having to download an illegal 3rd party tool to rip your CDs and put them on your iPod isn't something they would do. Similarly, iPods have had video playback for ages now, but there is no method to copy DVD video to your iPod through Apple's tools. You can pop in a CD and it asks you if you want to import it into your library. You pop in a DVD and it just asks if you want to play, no option to import. If they let you import it, they would be breaking laws. The brand is established, and was established by the simple copying of music, so it's not important that it can't copy video as easily. But if it couldn't copy music easily, would it have even been a thing?
- josho 12y ago
  Further to your point, it has historically been hard to find any commercial software that converts a DVD to a digital file (so it's not just Apple). The reason for this is that under US law (DMCA I believe) it is illegal to circumvent DRM, a DVD has a very basic DRM scheme. So, commercial companies avoided this area. While any programmers that saw a market opportunity and built something soon wound up removing the key DVD ripping feature of their software, likely a result from receiving a kind letter from a MPAA lawyer.
  - rroriz 12y ago
    And that's why we have other companies around the world have software for that; that's why we have other types of legislations too: to circunvent DRM schemes.
wmf 12y ago
Actually, SDMI was supposed to foil that scenario; fortunately it didn't work. Also, the analog hole is so cumbersome that it would have made "5,000 songs in your pocket" pointless.
zachlipton 12y ago
Remember that the advertising tagline was "rip, mix, burn." Not "find a cable, connect your headphone jack to your microphone jack, painstakingly copy each track in real-time, trim and organize the audio files, encode to mp3, mix, burn."

by pje 12y ago

dublinben 12y ago

How well did that work for minidisc players?

zeidrich 12y ago

Sure it would. Apple would have not been keen to develop a technology that relied on illegal copying to start with. Copying music CD's was a grey area, but it's a grey area that you can do in a semi-legal capacity. There was no reason legally that Apple couldn't create a CD ripping process in iTunes. It's the user's responsibility to not use it illegally. However, if CDs were encrypted, Apple would get in trouble if they broke that encryption to let you copy CDs to your iPad. You could find some more shady 3rd party tools that would work around it, but Apple's whole model is that it's easy to use and that it just works. Having to download an illegal 3rd party tool to rip your CDs and put them on your iPod isn't something they would do. Similarly, iPods have had video playback for ages now, but there is no method to copy DVD video to your iPod through Apple's tools. You can pop in a CD and it asks you if you want to import it into your library. You pop in a DVD and it just asks if you want to play, no option to import. If they let you import it, they would be breaking laws. The brand is established, and was established by the simple copying of music, so it's not important that it can't copy video as easily. But if it couldn't copy music easily, would it have even been a thing?

josho 12y ago
Further to your point, it has historically been hard to find any commercial software that converts a DVD to a digital file (so it's not just Apple). The reason for this is that under US law (DMCA I believe) it is illegal to circumvent DRM, a DVD has a very basic DRM scheme. So, commercial companies avoided this area. While any programmers that saw a market opportunity and built something soon wound up removing the key DVD ripping feature of their software, likely a result from receiving a kind letter from a MPAA lawyer.
- rroriz 12y ago
  And that's why we have other companies around the world have software for that; that's why we have other types of legislations too: to circunvent DRM schemes.

wmf 12y ago

Actually, SDMI was supposed to foil that scenario; fortunately it didn't work. Also, the analog hole is so cumbersome that it would have made "5,000 songs in your pocket" pointless.

zachlipton 12y ago

Remember that the advertising tagline was "rip, mix, burn." Not "find a cable, connect your headphone jack to your microphone jack, painstakingly copy each track in real-time, trim and organize the audio files, encode to mp3, mix, burn."