“Like millions around the world, you have an iPod, the market-leading digital music player made by Apple Computer Inc. and have spent perhaps a few hundred dollars buying songs from the company’s iTunes music store. But do you really own the tunes? Whether you do, however, depends on how you define ownership,” Duncan Martell reports for Reuters. “Those songs you bought online from Apple play just fine, of course, so long you do so on the company’s iTunes digital jukebox software, on an iPod, burn a CD (you can only burn the same ‘playlist,’ or collection of songs, seven times), or stream them wirelessly to your stereo using another Apple gizmo. But Apple’s FairPlay digital rights management, or DRM, software prevents you from listening to those purchased songs on a music player from Dell Inc., Creative, Sony, or others. The same thing goes for songs you’ve imported to your computer from CDs you already own.”
MacDailyNews Take: Misleading and incorrect. You can burn any song purchased from the iTunes Music Store to music CD an unlimited number of times. A specific iTunes playlist containing a protected track can be copied to a CD up to seven times before the playlist must be changed. Songs that you’ve imported into iTunes from CDs that you already own are not encoded with Apple’s FairPlay DRM. As songs can be imported into iTunes using AAC, AIFF, MP3, WAV, and Apple Lossless, any player or application that supports any of those formats will play such tracks without a problem.
Martell continues, “To be sure, Apple rivals have their own DRM technology to protect against piracy, such as Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp., but none have been as successful so far as Apple. The Cupertino, California-based company has a 70-percent market share in the United States for digital music players, and higher than that for music purchased online. Beyond just having songs you bought from iTunes ‘trapped’ on the iPod and in iTunes, it’s also not a snap to move songs from an iPod – whether you bought them or initially pulled them off a CD – back up to a computer. While it’s possible to do so, Apple doesn’t make it easy, right off the bat, because it’s trying to discourage piracy.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “schreiber” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Only Apple’s iTunes works for both Mac and Windows PC users. The also-rans music services offer only Windows-only DRM from Microsoft. Again, the song purchased from iTunes Music Store is not “trapped” on the iPod and iTunes; it plays on Motorola phones and can also be burned to music CD and used anywhere. If you wish to go from iPod to computer, first blame the music labels for not allowing Apple to offer that feature, and then go download something like iPodRip (one among many) to accomplish the task.
We can play iTunes Music Store-purchased songs on Macs, Windows PCs, iPod models for every budget, Motorola phones, and burn them to CDs to play in CD players or import into other computers and/or music players. If we join a subscription service or use another à la carte service (Windows-only) with some “soon-to-be-discontinued, won’t-intgrate-with-my-vehicle, has-no-accessories, parent-company-is-hemorrhaging-cash or reorganizing” digital media player, do we get less lock-in or more?
This article is backwards, misleading, and outright incorrect in places. Martell should do better (or some) research next time. If he had, he’d realize that Apple’s iPod+iTunes is the least “limiting” legal solution available. All of the other online music services are Windows-only, offer smaller libraries, fewer exclusives, no video, etc., and work only with inferior also-ran devices. Why does the fact that Apple’s competitors have failed miserably make them magically immune from Martell’s criticism? If Martell’s so hell-bent on writing about not “owning” songs, he really needs to check out any of the subscription plans offered by the likes of Napster, Real, etc.
Readers should ask themselves what’s the point of this article? Who is it really intended to serve? Certainly not consumers of digital media players and/or online media. So who really benefits from an article that’s laden with mistakes and misleading statements about Apple’s FairPlay DRM? Answer that one honestly and perhaps we’ll be closer to understanding the point of writing and publishing it.
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Related articles:
SmartMoney publishes compendium of iPod FUD – May 11, 2006
“Apple doesn’t make it easy, right off the bat, because it’s trying to discourage piracy.”
NO SHIT, SHERLOCK.
This article is nothing more than a baby whining.
Can’t convert protected AAC to AIFF without wasting money on a CD blank, reimporting, and having to type/C&P the damn name of the song in again.
Hello? Never heard of Wiretap or Audio Hijack? I expect something this misleading from Enderle, but are Mac users getting as stupid as Windows users?
“Why all the Apple hate and FUD? Year after year, the same crap”
When Apple was the underdog there was FUD. Now that it’s top dog there’s FUD. Face it, people feel threatened by cool.
people feel threatened by cool.
Especially when they aren’t I guess
If I buy a movie ticket at a Cobbs theater, why can’t I walk over and use it at Regal?
Hello? Never heard of Wiretap or Audio Hijack? I expect something this misleading from Enderle, but are Mac users getting as stupid as Windows users?
Right. And how fucking long is that going to take for a 45 minute album ? 45 fucking minutes! I really want to pay for more software to allow me to rip that audio in real-time to circumvent the DRM. That’s real progress right there. I might as well be sampling the song from vinyl. You can try to justify iTMS as much as you want. Re-sale value on iTMS songs is ZERO. It’s only more convenient at the purchasing stage, after that, regardless of whether it’s the best and most fair DRM out there, it’s still DRM, and DRM sucks for consumers.
Baby Huey vs The Dauphin
by digby
They really didn’t need to do this poll on whether Clinton outperformed Bush. It’s obvious to anyone who lived through the era. What the story fails to mention is that Clinton outperformed Bush while fighting off the rabid, slavering GOP congress of Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott that was determined not only to thwart his program but used every institutional lever of power they had to destroy him personally. He wasn’t perfect, but the guy had the most amazing grace under pressure I’ve ever seen. He even showed good humor about it most of the time:
“I’m a lot like Baby Huey. I’m fat. I’m ugly. But if you push me down, I keep coming back.”
Bush by contrast has had a free hand. He had an historical moment that could have brought the country and the entire world together — which he decided instead to use as an opportunity to aggressively assert arrogant partisan and American power. Rather than being a “uniter not a divider” as he promised in the campaign, he roared into office with his one vote majority and treated the Democrats like lackeys, behaving as if he had a mandate to enact the most extreme items on the GOP agenda. He used patriotism as a bludgeon to intimidate all dissent against his inexplicable war with Iraq. At every turn he behaved with insolence and hubris and his failure has been manifest. Now he lives in a bubble, wandering around dazed and confused about what is happening to him — which is not the result of Democratic partisanship, I might add, but rather the assessment of the American people. (The Democrats were paralyzed during most of his term.) Perhaps that’s why his fall has been so steady — the slow realization among the people that being a leader takes more than a manly swagger and a down home accent.
Bill Clinton may have been an imperfect human being but he was a president. This guy is, and always was, just a brand name in a suit.
Wow. I haven’t heard such a well written tirade before! And one that seems to forget so much history and focus only on two men.
Consider me enlightened.
不错哦，但是很多的时候我是想 os x 和 win xp 一起用，我想 在os x 上运行 xp 的程序应该是 另一个 很好的选择哦。再说 os x 也是苹果电脑吸引人的一部分。
<<“Again, this article only serves to get people arguing; it provides no information or news about Macs, and hardly belongs in a “daily news” page”
I’d like to see MDN post only articles when Apple releases a product. It would be fun to see then how many people would bitch about how MDN never updates their site with new content.>>
Straw man arguments are what forum retards do best.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
One can also open an ITUNES purchased song in iMovie (free with Macs) and export the music as .mov file which can be imported into Final Cut Pro. A nuisance I admit, but a free method of using the DRM protected songs. All’s fair as long as your FCP project isn’t for commercial use.
“Nature abhors a vacuum, Watson, and it is obvious to the astute observer that Duncan Martell has filled the space formerly occupied by that Napoleon of brine, the sometimes late and always unlamented, Professor Robert Enderle.”
“Surely not, Holmes!” I ejaculated, not a little surprised. “Martell is a journalist for a highly respected news-gathering agency. Enderle is a much more devilish creature, whose wild meanderings on the Inter-Web keep his name first and foremost on any decent citizen’s list of proscribed authors.”
“Ah, Watson. Always the naif,” he replied in his languid manner that to a stranger would convey the image of perfect torpidity but which I knew disguised his true demeanor.
“No,” he continued as he retrieved from the mantlepiece the Persion slipper from which he filled his most evil-smelling pipe with tobacco from the Persian slipper, “I can feel the faint tremblings of a delicate web of deceit being spun by his fingers on the keys of the instrument he employs in his communications with the great masses of an undiscerning public. He is well on his way to surpassing Enderle, invoking the professor’s name merely to taunt those who realize the Gates-Ballmer axis of evil is spreading its wealth to him, as well. But his doing so suggests the Enderle reign of malevolence may be drawing to a close, that perhaps the public recognizes Enderle for what he is and that a new name and, perhaps, photograph, must rest atop the not thin tissue of printed lies the beast must generate daily to stay alive.”
“Then we should give thanks for small miracles, Holmes.”
“You can if you wish, Watson,” he said, stifling a yawn. “But if my deductions prove correct, we have merely exchanged one propagandist for another. I would rather we stuff him up.”
“Stuff him up?” I asked incredulously. “With what? When?”
“Why, with my shoe, Watson. As to the rest, be patient. The time will come.”
“But where, Holmes, where?”
“Alimentary, my dear Watson, alimentary.”
motorhead1: HBO have just cancelled Deadwood after series 3. Upside: the language might improve around here (but who cares?); downside: they just spiked some of the greatest TV of all time – and I speak as a native BBC user. Shame on you, HBO!
(Sorry this is OT)
MDN : iTMS, unlimited CD copies is not thrue: 7 x you can rip of.
Spark: One can also open an ITUNES purchased song in iMovie (free with Macs) and export the music as .mov file which can be imported into Final Cut Pro. A nuisance I admit, but a free method of using the DRM protected songs. All’s fair as long as your FCP project isn’t for commercial use.
Thanks for the tip (and for mentioning that it’s a nuisance). I’ll try that if there’s a next time.
And yes. Just to confirm, this is for non commercial use.
And don’t forget to check out this FUD toooooo….a compete repeat of all that has been said before in one article…..<http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=june2006>…..the author must have needed something for the magazine so the paycheck would come…..
Brit,
“downside: they just spiked some of the greatest TV of all time – and I speak as a native BBC user. Shame on you, HBO!”
I could not agree more! What a shame. It would be nice if it stayed in production for download. I might actually pay for that show! In fact I am!
If I had to choose between Deadwood and Sapranos….. Deadwood! No contest!
Harry,
First off, it is burn not rip. Rip = you are importing songs from a CD. Burn = putting songs from iTunes onto a CD.
Second MDN is correct, you are only limited in the number of times you burn a single play list, for example if you have 10 songs all from the same album, you can only burn them in that order 7 times.
If you change the order, thus creating a different play list you can burn them 7 more time.
OR you could use a single song by an artist in 100 different play list mixes.
The reason the restriction is on the number of times you can burn a play list is so pirates can’t buy an album in iTunes and make enough CD burns to make it profitable to pirate.
If you want to verify this you could do what I did and look up DRM in the iTunes help file.
Check this Wiki article about Jon Johansen (see other projects section) This guy continues to crack every DRM scheme that comes his way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lech_Johansen
He’s currently hard at work cracking the new AACS DVD DRM. I am NOT condoning piracy. I find his story quite fascinating. Just info and an interesting read……….
Ticks me off when I go to VH1 or FOX Sports and BOTH sites have their heads up Micro$ofts ass and NONE of the video will work on a Mac. Now tell me WHO is blocking cross platform use there. And I don’t see ANYONE forcing a difference!!
Jim J, I guess pirates are too retarded to burn the CD once then copy the CD, or get thousands of copies of it pressed?
DRM is targeted at the casual sharer not the dedicated pirate.
Lets face it, if anyone’s going to pirate things big time, they’re going to go with the full quality CD as a master rather than the crappy sounding iTunes version.