RealNetworks recently announced that their new RealPlayer with Harmony Technology would allow users to “Get your music anywhere. Transfer to any portable device” including Apple’s iPod. That sounds great for users, huh? Well, Apple doesn’t think so.
Apple’s so irked by the idea that users might have the freedom to buy music from someone other than them and still be able to play that music on their iPod that they’re considering suing RealNetworks and they are strongly hinting that they are going to break this feature in the next iPod software forced downgrade, I mean “update”. Kinda takes the polish off the ole Apple, eh?
In one way, it’s an odd position for Apple to take. iPod owners can currently transfer music they’ve burned from their own CD collections or downloaded off peer-to-peer networks to their iPods without a hitch. The difference here is that Real made it possible to also transfer songs bought at Real’s music store. It’s not hard to see that Apple is merely opposing its competitors at the expense of its users.
Now for the real twist. Apple is probably right! That is, they are probably right that RealNetworks broke Federal law to do this and that Apple could win a lawsuit on this point. That’s just how screwed up the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is!
You see, Apple’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that controls the copying of songs you buy from Apple’s iTunes store is what the DMCA would call “a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work.” Sec. 1201. And the DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent such DRM (in most cases) or to make available software or devices that circumvent such DRM. And while it’s not perfectly clear how Harmony works, if it makes it possible to copy Apple iTunes-purchased music onto any portable device, then it is inevitably circumventing Apple’s DRM.
What a mess. This is why I want a portable music player that runs GNU/Linux and plays non-DRM’d .ogg format music files. Then I can mostly ignore stupid laws like the DMCA and company in-fighting that hurts users and just enjoy my music in peace. Someone with financial backers and a manufacturing plant could make a mint selling open hardware running open software to fed-up consumers who just want to take back control over their music.
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