“French online music store Virgin Mega has filed a complaint against Apple Computer, claiming the company’s refusal to license the copy-protection technology used in its iPod is harming competition,’ Ina Fried reports for CNET News. “The action was filed with the French Competition Council in June and disclosed along with several other legal matters on Thursday as part of Apple’s quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Full article here.
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actually it would require major firmware in the ipod and basically apple would have to work backwards to get the ipod to sync with the virgin store (ahem.. windows media player) as well as the itms
An iPod sale may be more profitable for Apple in the short-term but over several years a loyal iTMS customer could purchase a lot of music. Every sale lost to a competitor like Virgin Mega would disrupt this business model.
Dave S said “Just remember the last time Apple didn’t want to sell it’s technology: 90% of computer users look at a MS/windows screen.”
You’re implying that if had Apple sold its technology in the same manner as M$ way back when then 90% of the machines in the world might be using Apple technology now instead. Do you really think Apple could have realistically avoided all the problems and pitfalls and litigation and software compatability issues with multiple manufacturers and hardware idiosyncrasies that came with what M$ is now getting to deal with because they leveraged the quality of their product to sell more boxes? I’m glad Apple is choosing to keep the vision of making the “entire widget” from start to finish that has made them a leader in innovation. I’d rather Apple have higher quality than quantity any day.
I don’t know of some of the people in this forum know the size and the ‘coo’l factor that Virgin commands in Europe and in Asia. The size of their market It is nothing to sneeze at.. One reason why Apple might be hesitant to licence Fairplay to Virgin it is because Apple is already in bed with some of the entities that Virgin poses a threat to. No one is disputing that the iPod is a superior product. The issue is Fairplay which just happens to be an oxymoron. If Apple could figure out how to sleep with both entities they would in flash as it means an enormous iPod market to them.
Just the french bitching about everything. Bunch of babies! Just shut the F%#@! up. Crawl back under yer beret (i don’t care if i spell french words wrong) and please, please, please dissapear. Or grab a gun and get in the fight. Help someone out instead complaining about everything. Holy shit! Sorry for my frustration.I don’t mean offend anyone. Especially our tender french ‘friends’.
Greedy lawyers are an american invention. Serves you right that you have so many of them. Anoyed? Sue me then..!
Hey American! Cool narrow minded atitude. Knows no foreign language, knows nothing about the world beyond his frontdoor, ergo knows nothing but to voice his ignorance. That’s why you’ve got so many “friends” in the world.
American, what is your problem. Do the hair on the back of your neck stand every time you hear the word ‘French’? I bet you are the type of idiot who orders Freedom Fries at McDonalds. Crawl back to your trailer idiot.
Maybe he could orders Fresh Cut Fries, no?
<;-)
stupid folks use .net ————–> Vigrin
>Or grab a gun and get in the fight. Help someone out instead complaining about everything.
Oh yes! Shooting and bombing people really helps!!!
I hate these americans, they think they know it all. Theyre the ones who are sue happy. No wonder they don’t have a sense of humour. Just a miserable lot. I bet he even has a mullet.
They could just license Harmony from Real. <ducks>
atomic flower,
“Does Virgin have to design and manufacturer its own player in order for it to sell music?”
No. Sell CDs, MP3s, unprotected AAC/WMA. Apple is proving integrated end-to-end (player, jukebox, store) user experience is important to users. Altho Virgin doesn’t HAVE to, customer research shows they SHOULD work with a player mfr and jukebox developer to create such an experience. Sony knows it, they just can’t get it to work right.
“Why SHOULDN’T they be able to sell to iPod users.”
They CAN. CDs, MP3s, unprotected AAC/WMA. BUT Fairplay – NO. Because they didn’t have the foresight to spend the money to buy and implement it. And the current owner doesn’t want to license it to them because they don’t help the business plan.
Could they offer something valuable like a hard-to-reach market? Facts: Apple freely gave away iTunes/QuickTime (Fairplay inside) to Mac/PC users to gain the computer market. Apple created a player-competitor in HP to gain a worldwide & corporate market. Apple shared technology w/BMW & Alpine to enter the car market. Apple is licensing(?) iTunes mobile music to Motorola to gain the cell phone market. Is there a pattern here? Conclusion: Despite what some think, Apple doesn’t believe Virgin (and Real) bring anything of value.
“Why protect something that doesn’t need protecting?”
How do you know it doesn’t need protecting? The market is still in its infancy (1-2% of all music sales).
But Apple didn’t publicly say they were protecting, so we’re assuming it. Why assume? There are other possibilities. Maybe they have far-reaching, wide-ranging business plans that require DRM (i.e., video, proprietary works), and now is not the right time to license (get pennies if license now, but can get dollars later). Maybe they’re protecting their iPod user-experience (“the lazy, stupid Pee Seas users”
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Maybe they have agreements with labels, original Fairplay owners, HP, or Motorola not to do so. Maybe this is a bargaining chip for the cell carriers. And maybe they are being short-sighted dumbasses and simply protecting the market for no good reason. Right now, we don’t know.
Xerox PARC & IBM (DOS) gave away stuff because they didn’t know value. Maybe Apple does and it’s still creating the right environment and the right time to get the better return.
When software companies use market share and resources as an excuse for not creating Mac versions of games and applications, Mac users call them lazy Windows sheep.
But when Apple refuses to make the iPod compatible with other music services and their iTunes music store compatible with other devices, Mac users defend it with the same “market share” argument as the Windows software companies.
When third parties sue Apple, Mac users complain about litigious ambulance chasing, parasite lawyers.
But when Apple sues someone, Mac users say “Go Go Go Apple”
Hyprocrisy or not?
It is so unfaire. We Frenchmen, blessed by God with talents nearly equal to the angels, always must endur the advantage taken by the drollish English speakers. I feel I must stamp my pied petit at the shame of it all. Idiots!
Tribalism is soooo yesterday… Grow up kiddies.
Sure, you can’t be a monopoly
Ever hear of Microsoft?
Can I sue a virgin who won’t have sex with me?
A lot of countries can produce champagne but only the french can call it that ,i believe one brand has the name of Monopole correct me if im wrong . Some of it tastes a lot better too
The last time i checked. Every company in the world has the goal of being a monopoly….If you look at mission statements of most tech companies…The goal is to be the “Market Leader”…As long as I have a choice…And we all still do…Who cares? Every dog has its day….
Oh yeah, and why doesnt Apple license it for fee’s…It makes more sense for them to charge a licensing fee for it than to leave everyone out…It reminds me of, er-um, the 80’s…Anyone remember that???
Virgin can sell un-protected MP3, AAC or MP4 audio files anytime they want and the files will play on an iPod or any other MP3 player.
Typical whiny virgin.