Lawsuit demands end to iPod/iTunes monopoly; CD sales plummet

[AppleInsider]

A class action lawsuit filed against Apple Inc. accuses the company of knowingly controlling the handheld market with its FairPlay music standard, forcing rivals out of business and allowing it to overcharge customers for iPods -- news that comes just as CD sales are reported to have dropped sharply in 2007.

Class action charges Apple with digital music monopoly

A 24-page class action complaint submitted this week in a Northern District of California court alleges that Apple is unfairly tying the iTunes Store and the iPod together by selling much of its music in the FairPlay AAC format. Customers who own the iPod must buy from iTunes if they want music in a protected format; in just the same measure, iTunes customers must buy an iPod if they want to listen to music on a portable player.

As Apple effectively controls the digital music sales industry, this is a major disincentive to buying a competing player, say chief plaintiff Stacie Somers and her representing lawyer Helen Zeldes. The two point to statements by government officials in France and Norway where Apple was accused of leaving customers without rights.

Moreover, the iPod maker is not only neglecting support for rival standards but is deliberately stripping it out and creating "crippleware," according to the lawsuit. Although the chipset in the iPod shuffle natively recognize Windows Media Audio, no such support exists in the shipping firmware of it or any other iPod.

Apple is also targeted in the complaint for using its secure position atop the market to allegedly overcharge customers for iPods. Although the prices for immediate orders of 1GB and 4GB of memory were only separated by $5.52 at the time Apple produced the first-generation iPod nano, Apple saw fit to charge $100 more for the higher-capacity model, the plaintiff says.

As these combined practices potentially violate the Cartwright and Sherman Antitrust Acts in addition to California competition laws, Somers' suit asks for a permanent injunction against the reported behavior in addition to damages.

CD sales drop nearly 10 percent in 2007 as online sales rise

Sales of albums in the US have dropped a full 9.5 percent in the US between 2006 and 2007, according to new results from Nielsen SoundScan.

Much of this is attributable to a shift away from CDs due to both legal and pirated music downloads, though the research firm cautions that the music business would have fared worse without the help of online music stores, dropping by a steeper 15 percent.

Digital sales ultimately represented the recording industry's shining beacon, according to the report. Sales at all online stores grew by 45 percent to roughly 844.2 million individual songs and were responsible for 10 percent of all music sold. Actual content sold climbed by about 14 percent to 1.35 billion, hinting that customers were buying more items overall but also spending an increasing amount on individual songs and music videos.

"That says consumers are embracing both the track format and the digital album format," says Nielsen Music president Rob Sisco.

Intuit resolves troublesome QuickBooks data loss glitch

After contending with the issue since mid-December, Intuit on Friday has released a QuickBooks patch that it says should fix a potentially very dangerous bug in the 2006 and 2007 Mac versions of the company's finance management software.

Owners of the program found that installing an automatic update last month erased the contents of their Mac's Desktop folder, triggering a class action lawsuit as well as complaints from many users.

The download primarily disables the automatic update feature and suggests that users will instead have to manually apply future patches to QuickBooks to address any flaws discovered in the future.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[makeitso]

...which I prefer over an iPod as it:

1) Has a built in 3Megapixel camera
2) A very good stereo FM radio
3) A versatile address book that syncs with my Mac address book
4) A calendar that syncs with iCal
5) A 3G video camera and modem
6) A great intuitive interface that is faster to navigate than an iPod
7) With my new Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headphones and $20 2Gig memory card, I have a great sounding music player that pauses when a phone call comes in.

HOWEVER!

I cannot play any of the music I purchased from the iTunes music store on it!

This is like me buying a book and only being able to read it in a specific location.

Come on Apple, un DRM ALL your music today, or I'm going to compete...

[trevorlsciact]

alright, that's it! apple is working to eliminate DRM! it is the fault of the record companies, not apple. if this were a year ago I would agree with the lawsuit 100%--but apple is moving away from it, and that means this lawsuit is not in good spirit, and it mean there are just people after money behind it. It is unfortunate, and I hate to see that.

[pjg]

Hard to believe a class action suit regarding music sold on iTunes would succeed, given how many options there are for playing other downloaded music on the iPod, and also for converting AAC in mp3 with ITunes.

On the other hand, Apple does indeed have a rigid hardware lock-in with the video's they sell. I purchased episodes of Battlestar Galactica and I can't believe how much more restricted the DRM is for video than it is for audio. It's hard to believe I can't make a DVD of the video's I purchase in the same way I can make a CD of the audio I purchase.

[ajhill]

Basically the are suing Apple because they are too successful.

Next thing you know they will be suing the Japanese for selling better cars than the American makers.

Oh, and why haven't they sued Microsoft a long time ago for their monopoly on the OS market and the years of terrible software.

Grow up people. If you don't like Apple's products, buy the competitions. Oh, what's that, you don't like the design of the competitions? They are too hard to use. You don't like actually having to pay the artists?

This is just a thinly disguised attempt of the Music industry to try and sue back the market share that they lost to Apple. They can't compete in the open market so they resort to suing. What is this country coming to?

Al

[buddha]

Originally Posted by pjg

and also for converting AAC in mp3 with ITunes.

No.

Just another terrorize Apple case.

[bobmarksdale]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

A 24-page class action complaint submitted this week in a Northern District of California court alleges that Apple is unfairly tying the iTunes Store and the iPod together by selling much of its music in the FairPlay AAC format. Customers who own the iPod must buy from iTunes if they want music in a protected format; in just the same measure, iTunes customers must buy an iPod if they want to listen to music on a portable player.

1. Who in their right mind would willingly choose a protected format over a non-protected one for an iPod?
2. Wasn't iTunes designed for the iPod? I think I'm going to sue Toyota for not making the right replacement parts for my Saturn...

As Apple effectively controls the digital music sales industry, this is a major disincentive to buying a competing player, say chief plaintiff Stacie Somers and her representing lawyer Helen Zeldes. The two point to statements by government officials in France and Norway where Apple was accused of leaving customers without rights.

I hate this 'monopoly' which is why I'm going to help propagate it by purchasing their products. And there's also this thing called the internet... you may have heard of it, apparently you can buy digital music off of it in many many places.

Moreover, the iPod maker is not only neglecting support for rival standards but is deliberately stripping it out and creating "crippleware," according to the lawsuit. Although the chipset in the iPod shuffle natively recognizes Windows Media Audio, no such support exists in the shipping firmware of it or any other iPod.

That's just ridiculous. Does the Zune support Fairplay AAC? Do any of Sandisk's players?

Apple is also targeted in the complaint for using its secure position atop the market to allegedly overcharge customers for iPods. Although the prices for immediate orders of 1GB and 4GB of memory were only separated by $5.52 at the time Apple produced the first-generation iPod nano, Apple saw fit to charge $100 more for the higher-capacity model, the plaintiff says.

Supply and demand? Free market economics? People willingly paid for the 4GB model, not because someone held a proverbial gun to their head and forced them to, but because they were able and willing to purchase it at that price, and so they did.

As these combined practices potentially violate the Cartwright and Sherman Antitrust Acts in addition to California competition laws, Somers' suit asks for a permanent injunction against the reported behavior in addition to damages.

Oh, how we all love the American justice system and the crap that it allows.

[skottichan]

Originally Posted by makeitso

...which I prefer over an iPod as it:

1) Has a built in 3Megapixel camera
2) A very good stereo FM radio
3) A versatile address book that syncs with my Mac address book
4) A calendar that syncs with iCal
5) A 3G video camera and modem
6) A great intuitive interface that is faster to navigate than an iPod
7) With my new Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headphones and $20 2Gig memory card, I have a great sounding music player that pauses when a phone call comes in.

HOWEVER!

I cannot play any of the music I purchased from the iTunes music store on it!

This is like me buying a book and only being able to read it in a specific location.

Come on Apple, un DRM ALL your music today, or I'm going to compete...

Well, the problem lies more in the record industry, than apple. Steve Jobs has been openly anti-drm from the beginning. More importantly, Apple explains in detail how to legally circumvent their DRM. Even more importantly, you're not forced to buy music from itunes store ever, at all, not to run on your ipod, or to import into itunes. A monopoly is;

"A monopoly (from Greek mono(μονό), alone or single + polο (πωλώ), to sell) is a persistent situation where there is only one provider of a product or service in a particular market. Monopolies are characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods."


There are MANY viable providers for music, television, movies and other media. Amazon, eMusic, Rhapsody, ZuneMarket, peer2peer and torrenting are all valid forms of digital media. Ripping physical media from brick and mortar stores, as well as ordering from online are all useable in iTunes.

I'm really not seeing the "Monopoly".

[physguy]

Originally Posted by makeitso

...which I prefer over an iPod as it:

1) Has a built in 3Megapixel camera
2) A very good stereo FM radio
3) A versatile address book that syncs with my Mac address book
4) A calendar that syncs with iCal
5) A 3G video camera and modem
6) A great intuitive interface that is faster to navigate than an iPod
7) With my new Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headphones and $20 2Gig memory card, I have a great sounding music player that pauses when a phone call comes in.

HOWEVER!

I cannot play any of the music I purchased from the iTunes music store on it!

This is like me buying a book and only being able to read it in a specific location.

Come on Apple, un DRM ALL your music today, or I'm going to compete...

This law suit won't help you a bit. It's goal is to have Apple support WMA on the iPod. That wouldn't change your situation at all as iTune's won't sell in WMA in any case. BTW if you purchased iTunes+ music you could (assuming the phone support AAC). So buy iTunes + tracks or CD's.

Better rev up your on lawyers.

[SpamSandwich]

Good grief, is this why AAPL dropped nearly 15 points today?

Wow. Panic... confusion... cha cha cha!

[skottichan]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Good grief, is this why AAPL dropped nearly 15 points today?

Wow. Panic... confusion... cha cha cha!

Nah, it's more attributable to the 200+ point drop of the general market

[adeen]

Have these folks never heard of MP3? How is it that I'm playing all that music I bought from Amazon on my iPod?

[billiam]

Originally Posted by makeitso

...which I prefer over an iPod as it:

I cannot play any of the music I purchased from the iTunes music store on it! [non ipod device]

This is like me buying a book and only being able to read it in a specific location.

That's a stupid analogy. And yes, I used the word "stupid" on purpose. (I'm didn't call YOU stupid, I called your analogy stupid. Smart people can come up with stupid ideas. What makes them smart is that they recognize their idea, when scrutinized, isn't worth keeping (ie: posting on a public forum.)

You bought the music knowing it would only play on devices that understand Fairplay. Apple never promised devices from other companies would one day have Fairplay installed.

I bought a lot of movies on VHS and now they don't play on my DVD player. As long as they still play on my VHS, I got my money's worth. The studios didn't screw me.

Before you say "Yes, but what if your VHS player broke and the tapes didn't play on your new VHS player?" Again, I bought the VHS tapes knowing they'd play on all machines that support VHS tapes. Your iTunes songs play on all machines that support the Fairplay format. Exactly as was promised when you bought them.

CD games made for Nintendo don't play on Wii consoles. You have to buy the same game again for each different machine you have. Sometimes the games are available on multiple machines, sometimes they're not. That's life. Nobody screwed you.

[city]

It is interesting that they didn't file in eastern Texas.

[palegolas]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

... Actual content sold climbed by about 14 percent to 1.35 billion, hinting that customers were buying more items overall.....

All this whining, when there are in fact only good news for the music business to report. Content sold 14% up is just fantastic news!!
I agree though that the consumer should have more generous rights to its legally purchased music content. But hey, that's why we like the new DRM free trend emerging (that Apple was part of starting.) Nah... I say these are a bunch of whiners... Move along... new times ahead.

[NasserAE]

Come on.. There are many softwares and methods for removing any protection on any audio file. Don't tell me that you don't know how.

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by ajhill

Oh, and why haven't they sued Microsoft a long time ago for their monopoly on the OS market and the years of terrible software.

What an outstanding, original point! Why didn't someone else think of that?

[svesan03]

Of course everyone's suing Apple because they're successful. It's the great American way! The more successful a company is, the more like a law firm they become at the executive level. Look at Google, Qualcomm, Microsoft, I just received my free copy of Retrospect Express from LaCie because someone filed a class action against them recently, why, because a 500gig Hard drive doesn't actually allow you to save 500Gb of your own stuff and no warning was given that 500Gb actually means around 492 of useable space... oh boo hoo. I get software worth 20 cents at cost, the lawyers get over 120K for filing a couple of bits of paper that they refer to as "intensive negotiations". Absolute bullshit!!!

Other great American pastimes... buying a flat screen at Costco, keeping it a year and bringing it back without the box for a full refund because they have a satisfaction guarantee. (Yup, saw it happen five times in the last three visits to Costco) One guy actually bought a trinitron 3 years ago and came back with the receipt asking for a 100% refund..

But I digress, I am currently looking for people who would like to file a lawsuit against Microsoft for building software that crashes twice a day, after all, if Toyota did the same thing with cars.... How about asking for a risk premium? If Apple is to make Microsoft's formats available on an iPod, then Microsoft needs to reimburse us each time the bloody thing crashes, after all, our equipment works just fine without it, but invariably crashes when Microsoft gets involved. Let 'em open it up I say... I'll personally file a class action suing their crap back out if the Microsoft format ruins my listening enjoyment by crashing my machine.

As an Apple stockholder I think Apple should go all the way with this one. Steve J was hammered by the industry for publicly demanding an end to DRM and now he's being sued because DRM's still there. My hope is he'll lowball an offer in compromise and litigate the hell out of this, sticking the plaintiff and the lawyers with Apple's in addition to their costs.

I also think it's time for stockholders to band together and sue the plaintiffs and their lawyers for affecting the stock price and losing me money with bullshit lawsuits. These assholes push all the time to get something they don't deserve, it's time to push back

[internetworld7]

Originally Posted by makeitso

...which I prefer over an iPod as it:

1) Has a built in 3Megapixel camera
2) A very good stereo FM radio
3) A versatile address book that syncs with my Mac address book
4) A calendar that syncs with iCal
5) A 3G video camera and modem
6) A great intuitive interface that is faster to navigate than an iPod
7) With my new Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headphones and $20 2Gig memory card, I have a great sounding music player that pauses when a phone call comes in.

HOWEVER!

I cannot play any of the music I purchased from the iTunes music store on it!

This is like me buying a book and only being able to read it in a specific location.

Come on Apple, un DRM ALL your music today, or I'm going to compete...

Sure you will.

[bdkennedy1]

Oh I absolutely LOVE this line....

"Customers who own the iPod must buy from iTunes if they want music in a protected format."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's not a single customer that wants the music they buy in a protected format.

[hillstones]

What a stupid lawsuit, and a stupid idiot that started it. It may not even reach a class-action status since the majority of people enjoy their iPod! Apple does not have a monopoly and they are not forcing you to use an iPod or iTunes. There are many portable music players available. Why isn't she suing Microsoft? The music industry required MS to have a locked system, just like they required Apple to have a locked system. Other players are bound by DRM in the form of the Windows protected WMA file. The people that keep blaming Apple for wrapping their content in DRM are idiots. The RIAA requires the DRM!

Apple is not controlling the market. The good people of the US and other countries CHOOSE to buy the iPod and use iTunes because it is easy to use! Other players on the market suck! Before the iPod, I had a Creative Labs Jukebox, which was the first hard drive MP3 player. It worked, but it was too big, and slow as hell for navigating menus, and took 5 hours to transfer music over USB 1.1! The moment the iPod arrived, I bought it the first day! The iPod was successful on both Mac and Windows long before the Music Store arrived. No one complained back then.

The majority of users have music from their own CD's, not purchased from iTunes. You can buy a competing player and put your own music on it without any restriction. You can buy music from iTunes, rip it to a CD, and reimport the music for any player. Or, go buy the CD and rip it for your generic music player. No one is forcing you to use iTunes, the iPod, or the Music Store. Lawsuit has no merit.

[iPeon]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

As Apple effectively controls the digital music sales industry, this is a major disincentive to buying a competing player, say chief plaintiff Stacie Somers and her representing lawyer Helen Zeldes.

Who created this market?

Apple did. Apple created this download digital music market from scratch. Money was spend, time and resources used as well as taking a risk in loosing this investment if it did not succeed.

Is the reward for having succeed to now give away part of its rightly owned commodity to those who did not contribute to it in any way shape or form?

Only a thief would agree to that.

[icfireball]

So basically, this is a lawsuit against Apple because many studios won't let them sell DRM-free music?

I think this lawsuit ignores the real issue at hand: the studio's stranglehold on music.

[iPeon]

Originally Posted by icfireball

So basically, this is a lawsuit against Apple because many studios won't let them sell DRM-free music?

I think this lawsuit ignores the real issue at hand: the studio's stranglehold on music.

Are the non-DRM files from iTunes playable on non-iPod players? No, that is not the real issue.

[anantksundaram]

The story says: "Actual content sold climbed by about 14 percent to 1.35 billion, hinting that customers were buying more items overall but also spending an increasing amount on individual songs and music videos."

What the heck does this mean? Does anyone follow? Can someone translate?

[Samnuva]

Originally Posted by svesan03

I also think it's time for stockholders to band together and sue the plaintiffs and their lawyers for affecting the stock price and losing me money with bullshit lawsuits. These assholes push all the time to get something they don't deserve, it's time to push back

Not a bad Idea...

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by skottichan

Nah, it's more attributable to the 200+ point drop of the general market

A lot went down.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...A0Q&refer=home

The chart in the lower right corner shows that just about every major industry took a hit:
http://finance.google.com/finance

[yuffie03]

What a crock. Typical bottom dwelling scum sucking attorney behavior. Class action lawsuit. How can lawyers with no class file class action lawsuits?

[csimmons]

Originally Posted by makeitso

...which I prefer over an iPod as it:

1) Has a built in 3Megapixel camera
2) A very good stereo FM radio
3) A versatile address book that syncs with my Mac address book
4) A calendar that syncs with iCal
5) A 3G video camera and modem
6) A great intuitive interface that is faster to navigate than an iPod
7) With my new Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headphones and $20 2Gig memory card, I have a great sounding music player that pauses when a phone call comes in.

HOWEVER!

I cannot play any of the music I purchased from the iTunes music store on it!

This is like me buying a book and only being able to read it in a specific location.

Come on Apple, un DRM ALL your music today, or I'm going to compete...

??? All Sony Sricsson phone support AAC, so any iTunes+ (non-DRM'ed) tracks you buy will play on it.

BTW you called yourself out at points 2 and 6. I also have a K800, and the interface absolutely SUCKS compared to the iPhone, and the radio is damn near useless.

[TheMadMilkman]

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

The story says: "Actual content sold climbed by about 14 percent to 1.35 billion, hinting that customers were buying more items overall but also spending an increasing amount on individual songs and music videos."

What the heck does this mean? Does anyone follow? Can someone translate?

It means that the record companies actually sold more, they just didn't sell CDs. So while they are making more money, they will continue to complain that piracy is killing music sales, even though it in fact is not.

[BenRoethig]

All Apple has to do is license fairplay DRM ACC's and this will all go away. The product will continue dominate reguardless.

That being said, Apple having by far the best solution out there does not make them above the law. If the roles were reversed and the zune and WMP were dominating the market (yes, the though made me laugh too) and making the same restrictive ties Apple is, you guys would be screaming for a anti-trust suit.

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by ajhill

Basically the are suing Apple because they are too successful.

Next thing you know they will be suing the Japanese for selling better cars than the American makers.

Oh, and why haven't they sued Microsoft a long time ago for their monopoly on the OS market and the years of terrible software.

Grow up people. If you don't like Apple's products, buy the competitions. Oh, what's that, you don't like the design of the competitions? They are too hard to use. You don't like actually having to pay the artists?

This is just a thinly disguised attempt of the Music industry to try and sue back the market share that they lost to Apple. They can't compete in the open market so they resort to suing. What is this country coming to?

Al

Exactly, it's laughable. The 8-Track makers may have felt the same way about the CD players or why not horse and cart makers against the car makers ... wait ... bow and arrows really lost out to guns didn't they ... my heart went out to the Neanderthal hod carriers association, they hated those wheel guys!

[Flounder]

Originally Posted by bdkennedy1

Oh I absolutely LOVE this line....

"Customers who own the iPod must buy from iTunes if they want music in a protected format."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's not a single customer that wants the music they buy in a protected format.

Ha Ha, I was just about to quote that. That's the most ridiculous sentence. I mean, what customer doesn't prefer DRM'd music?

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by TheMadMilkman

It means that the record companies actually sold more, they just didn't sell CDs. So while they are making more money, they will continue to complain that piracy is killing music sales, even though it in fact is not.

No, it does not, necessarily.

"Sold more" what? Tracks? CDs? CD-equivalent tracks? If it was tracks compared to CDs, you could sell more but not have higher revenues. And, were these sold in jewelboxes or as downloads? If the latter, via what outlets, considering the record companies have barely any? Anyhow, how could that account for more revenue, considering it is only 10% of overall sales, while physical CD sales fell by about the same amount? And, don't tell me it was video -- that is a small proportion of overall revenues.

The bottom line is, this article is poorly/confusingly worded, and does not say very much.

[skottichan]

Originally Posted by BenRoethig

All Apple has to do is license fairplay DRM ACC's and this will all go away. The product will continue dominate reguardless.

That being said, Apple having by far the best solution out there does not make them above the law. If the roles were reversed and the zune and WMP were dominating the market (yes, the though made me laugh too) and making the same restrictive ties Apple is, you guys would be screaming for a anti-trust suit.

Actually, anything bought on ZuneMarket can only be played on Zunes, period. Then there was Play For Sure, and then Rhapsody's protection scheme, etc.


I still find this suit ludicrous for the main reason that DRM isn't and has never been Apple's idea. Why not sue Warner and Universal for making non-DRM available via Amazon only?

[kerryb]

Originally Posted by makeitso

...which I prefer over an iPod as it:

1) Has a built in 3Megapixel camera
2) A very good stereo FM radio
3) A versatile address book that syncs with my Mac address book
4) A calendar that syncs with iCal
5) A 3G video camera and modem
6) A great intuitive interface that is faster to navigate than an iPod
7) With my new Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headphones and $20 2Gig memory card, I have a great sounding music player that pauses when a phone call comes in.

HOWEVER!

I cannot play any of the music I purchased from the iTunes music store on it!

This is like me buying a book and only being able to read it in a specific location.

Come on Apple, un DRM ALL your music today, or I'm going to compete...

Wasn't it the big Labels that insisted and still for the most part on DRM and not Apple? Don't most of the other online music stores use some form of DRM? Can songs purchased from iTunes be burned to a CD and then ripped as another format to be played on other MP3 players? The answer to all of the above is YES!

[ascii]

It was a lot of work and expense to put the iTunes store together. All the technical work as well as Steve Jobs negotiations with the record companies. I don't see why the sellers of other MP3 players should benefit from Apple's work. iTunes is an "iPod feature," not a general purpose store.

[Dave K.]

I don't have a problem with this lawsuit.

From a legal perspective, there is nothing wrong with a monopoly. Corporations only get into legal trouble where they use their monopoly abusively to lock out competition.

DRM restricts are intended to prevent anyone except for the purchaser to use the media (regardless of text, music, video, etc.). Apple took it one step further and decided not to license their FairPlay DRM wrapper technology claiming that it would lead to less secure DRM. This bullsh*t. By not licensing the FairPlay technology, Apple essentially is abusing their monopoly and locking out competition. This has to stop.

Dave

[monstrosity]

Originally Posted by BenRoethig

If the roles were reversed and the zune and WMP were dominating the market (yes, the though made me laugh too) and making the same restrictive ties Apple is, you guys would be screaming for a anti-trust suit.

Yes but Microsoft could not have been successful in MP3 market through making great products alone, they would have had to have used leverage from their current monopoly, which is why people would be "screaming for a anti-trust suit." .

[skottichan]

Originally Posted by Dave K.

I don't have a problem with this lawsuit.

From a legal perspective, there is nothing wrong with a monopoly. Corporations only get into legal trouble where they use their monopoly abusively to lock out competition.

DRM restricts are intended to prevent anyone except for the purchaser to use the media (regardless of text, music, video, etc.). Apple took it one step further and decided not to license their FairPlay DRM wrapper technology claiming that it would lead to less secure DRM. This bullsh*t. By not licensing the FairPlay technology, Apple essentially is abusing their monopoly and locking out competition. This has to stop.

Dave

And again, Apple explains on several places how to remove the DRM from your purchase. Whether or not you feel they should license FairPlay (which legally, they don't have to, it's THEIR IP) is a moot point.