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Wait, what? The iPod didn't block songs that weren't sold through iTunes.
by jeffbush 12y ago
Wait, what? The iPod didn't block songs that weren't sold through iTunes.
- georgemcbay 12y agoThe way this article words it is completely confusing, the actual argument (as I've read it from other sources) is that Apple's DRM prevented iPod users from using their iTunes-bought songs on other devices thereby locking them into Apple's ecosystem (because they couldn't buy a cheap MP3 player and export all the songs they already bought), thus having to pay high prices for replacement iPods to continue to enjoy all their iTunes song purchases. ... which is entirely true (pre-Apple's decision a few years back to switch to DRM-free MP3s), though it is debatable whether consumers should have had any other expectation as that's how essentially everyone's DRM works.
- mitchty 12y agoNot only that, but didn't the music labels mandate Apple use DRM and keep it up to date? They always threw out updates after the DRM got cracked within a few days. Which struck me as likely indicating they had a legal obligation to keep it that way. Besides even with the DRM it was easy enough to remove. Easier than the Real DRM in use at the time.
- wmf 12y agoIt blocked DRMed songs that weren't sold through iTunes. Real Harmony was a very specific and unusual case, though.
- jeffbush 12y agoIt would have been competitors DRM that blocked them playing (by design), right?
- wmf 12y agoNo, Real wanted their music to be playable on the iPod, so Real encrypted songs with some reverse-engineered version of FairPlay. Then Apple changed FairPlay so that Real's music wouldn't be playable.