RealNetworks, Inc. is delighted by initial consumer and music industry support for Harmony. Compatibility, choice and quality are critically important to consumers and Harmony provides all of these to users of the iPod and over 70 other music devices including those from Creative, Rio, iRiver, and others. RealPlayer Music Store provides the highest sound quality of any download music service. That’s why so many consumers have welcomed news of Harmony. Consumers, and not Apple, should be the ones choosing what music goes on their iPod.
Harmony follows in a well-established tradition of fully legal, independently developed paths to achieve compatibility. There is ample and clear precedent for this activity, for instance the first IBM compatible PCs from Compaq. Harmony creates a way to lock content from Real’s music store in a way that is compatible with the iPod, Windows Media DRM devices, and Helix DRM devices. Harmony technology does not remove or disable any digital rights management system. Apple has suggested that new laws such as the DMCA are relevant to this dispute. In fact, the DMCA is not designed to prevent the creation of new methods of locking content and explicitly allows the creation of interoperable software.
We remain fully committed to Harmony and to giving millions of consumers who own portable music devices, including the Apple iPod, choice and compatibility.
MacDailyNews Take: The war is on! Wonder which company will win? We also wonder if and when Apple will update iPod software causing Real’s Harmony technology to stop working with current and future iPods. Don’t buy a song from Real for your iPod unless you are prepared for it to become unplayable on your iPod sometime in the future.
Again, to those who would scream about “choice,” you have the choice to buy a Dell Digital Junkbox and use the Real Music Store as much as you wish. Enjoy your experience. We prefer to choose Apple’s iPod working with Apple’s iTunes Music Store and have found no other legal music service/player combo that even remotely compares to Apple’s solution.
“[…] Converting from one file format (i.e. Word document) to another is not the same thing as circumventing a licensed copy protection scheme.”
Okay, see, we have these files. They are in a format called Helix/AAC. They have been converted to FairPlay/AAC so that they will play on an iPod.
To draw an analogy, I have these FairPlay/AAC files. I convert them to an unprotected format called AIFF so that I can burn them onto a CD. I then take that CD and rip it to MP3 so that I can download the music to an iPod. Of course, I don’t have to do that because the iPod will play FairPlay/AAC. But if I wanted to play Helix/AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, or whatever, I’d have to convert the file to a format the the iPod would understand, much in the same way that I would have to convert an AppleWorks document into Microsoft Word format before Microsoft Word would read it.
There’s nothing “magic” about FairPlay/AAC. It is a proprietary file format, just like Microsoft Word documents. Yes, AAC is an open format, but so is ASCII (or Unicode) and there’s ASCII text inside a Word Document.
By the way, how does a copy protection scheme get “licensed”? Does it take a test? Is there a Department of Copy Protection Schemes that issues these licenses? And, last I knew, Apple wasn’t “licensing” FairPlay to anyone–no, Motorola doesn’t count because Apple isn’t licensing FairPlay to them–Apple is building iTunes for Motorola phones and holding onto the information.
Or do you mean that Apple licenses FairPlay from somewhere else? Not that old saw again…
Beside all ethical considerations about these move and countermove, I think Apple should finally accord this license to Real, which demonstrated to desperately need.
Even if Real is actually not able to bring any valid numbers to Apple in the deal, nor iPod customers would get some real benefit having one more store to choose from.
Neither Apple will have something to loose in the business, it would be just good for the Apple image:
One more name allied in the Apple champ, eventually allied against other potential competitors, a wider dominance of Apple DRM technology, iPod as the only device to support the quasi-totality of the online music market; that is a must-buy for any online music buyer.
Apple should stop hacking into Windows networks by including Samba with MacOS X.
I hope Microsoft issues a software update to block this unethical hacking by Apple.
An alliance with Real would do Apple no good. It will divert Apple’s resources and also divert potential customers. In the business of selling songs, Apple needs to hold on to every customer to become a music selling giant. iPods maybe what it is all about, but Apple also wants to keep the bundle alive and well. Apple doesn’t want to license its DRM to Real because it would license it to a competitor. Real IS a competitor and WILL stay one even if it licenses Apple’s DRM! So giving a piece of the pie to Real is not a good idea because Apple will, in the end, only loose – Apple wants to grow in the music business, not shrink. Instead, Apple should focus on making iTMS better and compete with Real (and others) by presenting people a better bundle, iPod/iTMS. (Higher bitrate AAC would be nice and adding an optional subscription service would be nice too.) But Apple needs control of it all to guarantee quality, because Apple also faces stiff competition from MS and its allies. The bundle is the consumer draw and the money!
Apple also doesn�t want to align with Real because it wants to separate itself from Real, because Apple also wants to push its QuickTime format on the web. When Apple allies itself with Real on the DRM, people will think that Apple and Real are getting together on other things too. Apple wants to push QuickTime over Real and it needs to dissociate itself from any other format vendor to do this.
Remember that whatever Real tries to tell the world, it has its own goal, and if Apple goes Real, Apple will somehow fall into a trap. If Steve thought it was good, he would have already taken the plunge, but he hasn’t. We all should trust that Steve is doing a wise business move for Apple right now.
Real wants to go down as the savior of the consumer, but all it wants to do is divert potential revenue from Apple. Opening up its iPod to Real or any other vendor seems great at first, but this might very well mean that Apple should start packing up its own store. Apple is a hardware seller and iPods sales is what counts, but Apple also doesn’t want its store to go down into oblivion; Apple wants iTMS to remain the face of the Apple music venture. Also what if Real offers something better than iTMS, Apple would loose face � Apple wants and needs control over its business.
Having said all of this from a business perspective, I’d only wish that DRM would just disappear.
“We all should trust that Steve is doing a wise business move for Apple right now.”
Ahh, yes, the good old appeal to authority logical fallacy.
What would you suggest, Sal?
“Ahh, yes, the good old appeal to authority logical fallacy.”
I still believe that Steve is a wise businessman, despite some shortcomings. I mean, if it weren�t for Steve, Apple would be down the drain. Yeah, yeah, you probably say, not that “Steve is Apple’s savior” reasoning. I am certainly not yelling: “Steve, Steve, he’s our man, if he can’t do it no one can!” But I do trust that Steve has more insight on certain things than some of us have. Hey, he conceived that iPod minis could be sold for as much as $249, while everybody else said it would fail. This, at least, says something about Steve the man. (Uh, that he wants our money really badly and likes to see us Apple fans go poor? Yes, that too.
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Okay, let’s start with the obvious.
How did Apple get TextEdit/AppleWorks to open Word documents? How did Apple get Keynote to open PowerPoint documents? Do you think they licensed it from Microsoft?
As a way to prove that they were not exhibiting embrace and extend, monopolistic behavior, MS themselves used to point out that the file formats are documented for people that subscribe to the right developer documentation.
I think it’s part of the MSDN subscription, but I don’t really care enough to find out which of the dozens and dozens of CDs it’s on.
Apple Tech Support:
“If you are experiencing any problems with the iPod and have installed Real Network’s “Harmony” software, first uninstall the “Harmony” software and discard it as it is not compatible… “
MS Word’s format was not created to limit distribution of copyrighted material. It’s simply designed to contain the information in a form that MS Word can use. Extracting the information from that format is all that is required. No keystore or encryption. In order for Real to get these Harmony files to work on the iPod (and any other device employing FairPlay), they had to figure a way (a hack) to mimic the FairPlay keystore/authorization system. At the moment, enabling their music to play on the iPod does not violate the agreement (assuming they have the same on that iTMS has, where they can play on unlimited portable players), but it sets a bad precedent. Rather than leave well enough alone, these losers at Real are out to make things more difficult for the rest of us. If the RIAA needed any justification to tighten security, Real just provided it. Funny that so many of you are supporting this.
This site is great for the links. But the editorial like the one above is just a bunch of apple fanboy speak. What a shame.
Sean