“A House panel appeared to rule out strict enforcement of digital music compatibility standards Wednesday, but left the door open for more indirect methods of curing the file-sharing industry’s iPod envy,” Elana Schor reports for Medill News Service. “Concerns had been mounting about Apple’s overwhelming hold on the digital music market after the company altered its iPod and iTunes technology to prevent the playing of files downloaded from competitor RealNetworks’ Harmony system.”
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, let’s get this straight: RealNetworks hacks a way to allow iPods to play music purchased from their online store without Apple’s permission, Apple continues to update iPod and iTunes as normal without considering (rightfully) if Real’s hack would break, and legislators are concerned about Apple, not RealNetworks? That’s pretty much par for the course in Washington.
“While considering action to force interoperability, which would ensure consumers greater access and would give artists greater royalties through a universal file-sharing network, lawmakers preferred to pursue competition as the answer. ‘Government intervention can probably prohibit innovation,’ said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. ‘Consumers will choose interoperability over closed platforms’ like the iPod,” Schor reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Consumers have already chosen and, in ever-increasing numbers, continue to choose the Apple iPod+iTunes solution that works on both Mac and PC platforms thereby providing more “interoperability” than the PC-only Napster, Real and other also-ran online music outfits. Perhaps legislators should consider action to force Napster, Real, and the rest to provide interoperability for Mac users? And, while they’re at it, are they going to legislate that Xbox titles should play on PlayStations, too?
Schor reports, “The iPod’s reign over the expanding digital music kingdom shows no signs of stopping yet, with Apple expecting to sell more than 15 million of its signature players this year. iPods can only play downloaded files from the iTunes online music store thanks to restrictions in digital rights management, or DRM. Both Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee considering digital music regulation, and his Democratic counterpart Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., indicated their action would avoid forcing digital music providers into compatibility. That did not exclude forcing providers to warn consumers of their incompatibility, what Smith called ‘not a government mandate, but still full disclosure.'”
Schor continues, “Smith was as vocal as any in the industry in his skepticism of Apple’s closely guarded system. Turning down an invitation to appear before his panel did not endear Apple to Smith,” Schor reports. ‘Generally speaking, companies with 75 percent market share of any business … need to step up to the plate when it comes to testifying on policy issues that impact their industry,’ Smith said. ‘Failure to do so is a mistake.’ Dr. Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America, suggested a labeling program for digital music products, ‘but I wouldn’t necessarily want to get there,’ he added. ‘I may, if iPods had to be labeled, ‘This music can’t play on anything else.””
MacDailyNews Take: To label iPods as described above by the good doctor would be idiotic. iPods do not contain music at the point of sale and they support many formats for users to play once they are loaded with digital files. Apple iPod shuffle plays MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4) and WAV. Apple iPod mini, iPod, and iPod photo units play AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF.
Schor continues, “William Pence, chief technology officer for Napster, the formerly illicit digital download program that has become Apple’s most legitimate competitor, was hardly threatened by Apple’s DRM dominance. ‘It does not seem prudent for [the] government to pick a winner in the continuing, but still quite early-stage, marketplace battle between Apple’s Fairplay DRM and its competitors,’ Pence said… Berman, who had gamely shared with Pence his young daughter’s troubles integrating Napster with the iPod, summed up his subcommittee’s conclusions. ‘I’ll quit bothering you and go to your message board,’ Berman quipped.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s good that lawmakers seem to prefer a laissez-faire attitude towards digital music compatibility. Let the market decide; it’s doing a fine job all by itself. Consumers are making their choice, Napster, Real and Microsoft just don’t like the choice they’re making. If people decide that they really, really need to buy songs from Napster for some unknown reason, then they should buy a compatible player. Most people we know seem to choose the player first, not the online store, since playing music purchased from an online store is but one feature of the player. Napster and Real and the rest are understandably upset that everyone and their mother is buying an iPod. We have a surefire “iPod envy” cure: go make a better player, a better jukebox, and a better online music service than Apple’s iPod+iTunes+iTunes Music Store and stop whining about your inability to compete.
[UPDATED, 9:48AM]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Napster is a joke – April 05, 2005
Napster CEO Gorog: ‘it’s stupid to buy an iPod’ – February 10, 2005
Napster’s ‘iPodlessness’ doesn’t bode well for its future – February 10, 2005
Napster CEO: We’re ‘the biggest brand in digital music, much more exciting than Apple’s iTunes’ – February 03, 2005
Cornell University’s Mac users ‘uniformly unhappy’ with Napster – January 19, 2005
RealNetworks ‘Harmony’ stops working on iPods but nobody notices for a month and a half – December 15, 2004
Apple’s latest iPod updates render RealNetworks’ ‘Harmony’ songs unplayable – December 14, 2004
Bono-Glaser photo caption contest now open – October 25, 2004
Real’s CEO Glaser: ‘Harmony’ hack legal, Mac lovers are very sensitive to Apple criticism, and more – September 14, 2004
Cornell University wrestles with Napster’s exclusion of Mac and iPod-using students – September 08, 2004
Why are Cornell’s Mac students being forced to pay for useless Napster? – September 07, 2004
Analyst: Rob Glaser’s ill-advised war against Apple ‘is going to bite RealNetworks on the ass’ – August 30, 2004
Rob Glaser interviewed about achieving harmony with Steve Jobs – August 17, 2004
RealNetwork’s CEO Glaser crashes Apple’s music party – July 30, 2004
Real CEO Glaser: Steve Jobs’ comments on Real ‘not succeeding’ are ‘ridiculously humorous’ – April 29, 2004
NY Times: Real CEO Glaser was close to having ‘iPod’ before Apple, but let it ‘slip through his fingers – April 24, 2004
Real’s CEO Glaser: Apple’s iPod/iTunes combo ‘threatens to turn off consumers’ – April 20, 2004
Jobs to Glaser: go pound sand – April 16, 2004
Real CEO Glaser begs Apple to make iPod play nice with other music services – March 24, 2004
Napster CEO: ‘it would be great’ if Apple iPod supported WMA – March 09, 2004
Napster CEO: Apple iTunes, iPod ‘consumer-unfriendly experiences’ – March 09, 2004
dukemeiser: leave it to a liberal to impose regulations
What BS!
From MDN summary:
Both Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee considering digital music regulation, and his Democratic counterpart Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., indicated their action would avoid forcing digital music providers into compatibility.
Smith, a Republican – from Texas, no less – is also the one who proposed that RIAA be allowed to jam computers with questionable material.
When it comes to studidity, liberals and conservatives are not immune to it.
“Terminally ill” woman??
Henry is a reminder why not everyone should vote
“leave it to a liberal to impose regulations”
Oh, like all those “liberals” in the FCC and Congress who want to regulate what we can see on Cable TV to be sure it meets the Religious Right’s ideas about what is decent?
When it comes to preaching freedom while practising authoritarianism, liberals and conservatives are both flaming hypocrites!
It’s a good thing the U.S. doesn’t have any problems like poverty, a declining job market, a deficit, disease, homelessness, drug problems or under-education for our children so that our government can focus on really important issues like this.
MCCFR: You are one of those who can’t vote, and you asked so that you could participate in world events, and that’s even more kick ass than most Americans are willing to admit. I’m a proud American, but most media outlets and many in congress would label me a hippie, liberal, or any number of things that don’t represent my gun toting free speaking animal killing air polluting people exploiting ways.
I’m not a liberal, but I sure as hell am not a republican conservative. I think that congress should get back to only meeting 6 months of the year, taking care of business, and getting back home to see their families and actually knowing the names of the people on their block back home, not the CEO of Dow Chemical or having lunch meetings with tech leaders listening to the dollar bills that are paying for the “lunch”. There is a lot that could be changed, or done differently, but it doesn’t need to be legislated, it needs to be enforced. In 2008, all people entering the US will need passports. All people entering legally anyway. If more guards had guns, if there were more guards at the border, then we wouldn’t have nearly as much to complain about. If congress would find better ways of enforcing what already exists, instead of trying to justify being paid $200,000 a year by making new crap that does nobody in particular any good, the US, and probably the world, would be much better off.
Magic Word: much, as in, maybe I care to much and should turn off my brain like the rest of the McDonald’s loving public.
Here is what I wrote to those guys the ones I could contact and my representative in Office.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/5412/
You should consider Apple more open than any of the other music stores, that is why they are so dominant. Apple supports both Mac and Windows, it also supports all these formats: Apple iPod shuffle plays MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4) and WAV. Apple iPod mini, iPod, and iPod photo units play AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF.
If you are going to limit a company because it has such a dominant market share why do u not go after Microsoft for its 90+% dominance of the operating system market?
If you are going to show interest in one area and not another you are not a good politician. Please consider your recent thoughts and look at who is mroe open. Napster or Apple.
Here is a clue:
Apple works on both Windows and Mac offering all the above compatible songs to transfer to an iPod.
Napster works only on Windows. Offers DRMed WMA files and MP3 support.
MCCFR, Dave H, and the rest of you liberal-commie-terrorist lovers,
I’m in London right now. I’ll be at the Texas Embassy tomorrow from 1pm on having lunch and beers if there’s anything you’d like to tell me.
Remember, if you’re going to write somebody like this, SPELLING COUNTS! I would have thrown that letter away, not even acknowledging a receipt of it. No offense, but if you sound like you’re a 12 year old, nobody is going to take you seriously. If you take the time, do the research, and back it up with sources, you will be taken far more seriously than someone who uses AIMspeak like they’re sitting in a chatroom. These people aren’t your friends, don’t treat them as such. View them like you would your school principal, and you will get much further than you ever thought you would.
MW: placed, as in I placed higher in standardized tests than my my classmates, yet still dropped out of high school because I was bored, and then got into college anyway because I can write better than most people already there.
More asslicking liberal interference.
MCCFR,
Still don’t see why you’re all so upset! Is it because the “WMA/Real community has decided that it is now simply going to lie its way into the public consciosuness”? Where have you been? Real & MS have been misrepresenting themselves to the public for a long, long time. In fact, Apple has been accused of the same thing (world’s fastest, most powerful desktop ads). Misrepresenting themselves to the public is not against the law, but it is bad for their businesses in the long run.
You seem to want a referee to step in and proclaim Apple as the winner of “the argument”, as you put it, which is exactly what will happen – once we realize that the consumer is that referee. I admire your fervor for a mail-in campaign, but don’t you think it strange that you, who have a relatively small interest in the outcome of this, is much more upset that Apple itself, that has its future tied up in this debate’s resolution?
Apple realizes that, ultimately, the consumer will decide the questions of format and compatibility, and that these hearings are only a sideshow to the main attraction happening in the marketplace.
Think a liberal could say any of the above quotes I referenced?
Not on your life…
Rod:
IF this law gets passed will that mean that Sony has to allow XBox games to work on its games player?
better yet…
does this also mean that we should be able to play Sony and Xbox games on our Macs?
Tilted’s Ayn Rand allusion is spot on! Since Apple is a no-show at these hearings, I can only deduce that the market is lost to the larger forces. Apple is holding on to as much as they can for as long as they can.
I’ll be selling ALL my apple stock next week (5-digit shares).
It’s been fun, but business is business. So long, elitism, arrogance and “Thinking Different”
Jay: Nice to know that you’ve decided to come to England and are broadening your cultural horizons by eating at the The Texas Embassy Cantina. In all honesty, avoid anything fishy – I’ve had bad experiences as have friends.
Sadly, I live/work around 40 miles from Trafalgar Square and as attractive as the idea of spending £8 in petrol, £5 in congestion charging, and another £6 in parking to give you a lesson in world affairs is, I’m afraid that it would be a waste of my time, money and intellectual capability.
However, please feel free to share your views on global terrorism and the intellectual powerhouse that is American politics with anyone within earshot: I’m sure people will be fascinated and enthralled by your witty epithets. Suitable venues include Queensway/Bayswater, Brick Lane in the East End, and many bars in Covent Garden. I look forward to reading about your successes in the papers.
Uh…
I’ve been around for the duration of MS’ successful annexation of corporate technology and Real’s less successful attempts to dominate the streaming media world, and I’ve been annoyed by practically all of it given that it has been largely based on FUD.
However, the “war” for dominance in digital music is a new theatre that gives Apple an opportunity to re-establish itself in the public eye as a vendor of innovative technology solutions, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to take a laissez faire attitude to yet another campaign of disinformation that is expressly designed not only to damage Apple’s position in the digital music marketplace, but – more importantly – to undermine the progress of QuickTime and MPEG-4 in the broader content delivery market.
The “argument” here is the fight for consumer mindshare, and allowing the WMA community to represent itself in the media as the “friend of the common man” legitimised by the fawning of Washington politicos who can’t recognise when they’re being manipulated should – at the very least – make you ask yourself as to why your tax dollars are being wasted on a marketplace that can barely be measured using analogue instruments.
As for the remainder of your message, you appear to be asking “why should a private consumer be upset, when Apple couldn’t even be bothered to attend ?”: This is a bizarre attitude which almost infers that the individual shouldn’t be encouraged to make a difference – no matter how unrealistic the likelihood of success – or that the public shouldn’t worry because companies and government will get it right in the end. I assume you vote in elections and don’t simply allow corporate donors to agree how the country should be run – it’s the same thing.
Mccfr,
Too bad you didn’t make it. I was hopeing to give you a world affairs lesson. I wouldn’t eat fish at a pub called the Texas Embassy. What a great name for a pub in the middle of London though. By the way no one, not one person has had any problems with my position on world affairs. I played squash for 2 hours aftewards at Lambs and no one had any problems with George Bush and Iraq there either. Too the contrary most people are that I’ve met and talked to are very happy with the outcome of Iraq and said George Bush and Tony Blair were proven right. So stop pretending that everyone in your country hates George Bush. It just isn’t truthful.
Jay, you truly are just a bit dim.
Firstly, The Texas Embassy Cantina is no more a realistic “English” pub than N’Sync are a real band.
Secondly, unlike yourself, I don’t pretend that everyone shares my view – but I do reserve the right to hold an alternative view to yours and to be able to discuss those view (which does appear to be your single biggest problem – kind of ironic given that you come from a country where the right to free speech is enshrined in the Constitution).
Thirdly, well done on speaking to people who both agree and disagree with you: tell me, were you as obnoxious with the ones who disagreed with you in person as you are online? Because I’ll bet you held back on calling people “fags” or “terrorist loving commie pinkos” as you’d just look like an idiot. In other words, who gets to see the real Jay Rice?
Fourthly, how exactly did you phrase your questions? No one doubts that a Middle East without Saddam Hussein is probably better for the region in general and probably for Iraq in the long-term (as it will take a long, long time for the country to rebuild itself and reconcile the internal political divisions). But the questions that you have still never addressed are a) has it really made the world safer from violent Islamic extremism, b) did it result in the capture of any senior terrorist suspects implicated in acts of terror against the USA or any of its allies, c) did it identify any [B]real[/B] WMD programmes or products of such programmes.
Given that the answers to a), b) and c) are all NO, you’re left with the fact that both your country and mine were quite simply [B]INTENTIONALLY[/B] misled as to the grounds for prosecuting the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with WMD or terrorism – which would have been vaguely excusable under international law – and everything to do with regime change – which is utterly forbidden under the UN Charter apart from anything else.
Of course, you’ll now go off on your all too familiar rants (“the UN is corrupt”, “the USA saved Europe from Communism”, blah, blah) which is where I lose interest in talking to you. Pax Americanus is an interesting concept in political philosophy, but I’d prefer it if it stayed a theory rather than a reality if it’s all the same to you.
MCCFR,
I was exactly myself and did not hold back one bit. No one held your crazy views. Sorry to break the news to you. You may need to see someone for your delusional rantings. I hear there are some pretty good drugs over here to help with that sort of thing. I also went out to the Hung Drawn and Quartered to celebrate my 39th birthday and had the exact same experiences and I’ve been to many other nice places while I’ve been here and vehemonantly stood my ground with the few wishy washy people that I have run into and I repeat no one shares your dillusional views that I have run into in the last two weeks here. I’ve got one more week to go. I’ll let you know if that changes but I highly doubt it will. Relax MCCFR the USA will continue to save the world whether or not you approve. Sorry you couldn’t afford the trip to meet me in person. Or is it because they only let you out of the padded room for a few hours a day internet access??????
And there you go…
No one holds “my crazy views” – well that would be interesting if you’d sampled a reasonable statistically weighted cross-section of people who actually care about truth in politics or the rule of international law, but – as birds of a feather tend to flock together – let’s let that one go by, shall we?
Here’s a thing, Jay: I know about public opinion in the UK, and most people believe that – since Iraq – Blair is no longer trustworthy at the same level. That said, in the low-balling world of lowest-common denominator politics, he’ll still be Prime Minister come May 6th (albeit with a reduced majority) mainly because the major opposition party appears to be trying to self-destruct and nobody has the imagination to pick the party in the middle.
As for the USA continuing to save the world, you really are a deluded, immature comic-book fan for someone who’s allegedly 39. And – by the way – you still haven’t answered any of the issues with the war in Iraq (no WMD, false prospectus, etc) because you simply don’t have an argument. I guess that’s because you’re a coward who doesn’t mind other people’s children – even your neighbours – dying so you can save 50¢ on a gallon of gas, whereas I believe that the USA should have reserved its money and firepower to fight a real war on terrorism.
Get a room, you two.
Effwerd: I’m sorry, but this guy is too much of a prick to allow his view on the world to go unchallenged – that’s how you land up with people like Hitler, Joe McCarthy, Saddam Hussein and Milosevic insinuating their way into public life. Other people may be willing to shrug their shoulders and say “Isn’t Jay funny”, but an ignorant buffoon is an ignorant buffoon whichever way you look at him.
MCCFR,
Man, you need some strong medication dude. Another day and still no one with your crazy views. I heard the US government has planted a chip in your brain and is monitoring your thoughts. You better watch out. Loser. Terrorist lover.
Now now, the name calling gets nothing done you two. Get out the guns and shoot each other, the better shot wins! Now that we can’t do that legally, though, the world has become what it is today. Sigh, what a world it is…