Apple faces trial for allegedly 'locking in' iPod owners with iTunes Music Store DRM

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 73
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    tmay wrote: »
    I couldn't remember exactly why I hated Real Player, but a little perusing on the internet came up with this:

    People HATED the spam ware, hostage ware, and Real Player surreptitiously replacing MIME's and the difficulty with uninstalling it, and the oft encountered story of Real Networks charging for subscriptions because poor souls thought they were downloading a free player.

    I run into this every now and then with Windows attempting to download a small and "free" utility, and inevitably ending up with PUP's (Probably Unwanted Programs) and adware. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about that with the App Store, nor with the iTunes Store.

    Real Networks was a parasitic entity, and I'm surprised that they haven't died.

    Sucks to be them, but Apple was right protecting its users from those potential headaches by breaking Harmony, even if their motives were profit. <span style="line-height:1.4em;">At the time, Apple was selling more music downloads than all the other services combined, driven by the popularity of the iPod. </span>


    I hope that the court sees this for what it was and awards Real Netorks nothing.

    Real Networks is not the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff class is comprised of customers who purchased Apple products between 2006 and 2009.
  • Reply 22 of 73
    Now that Apple is a huge icon of success and financial wealth, the frivolous lawsuits come left and right. Seems like every day sheesh.

    And this is pure stupid. Apple didn't want den. But they developed one to satisfy the music labels.

    So sue them. Sheesh.

    And beyond that, no one is tied to anything. Other music services worked and iTunes itself lets you convert a file to a drm free MP3.
  • Reply 23 of 73
    coolfactorcoolfactor Posts: 2,239member

    Checks the calendar to see if it's April 1st.

     

    Nope. What the heck is this? iPod lock-in? It's 2014. Who's really behind this? Can't be consumers. Lawyers maybe?

  • Reply 24 of 73
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nycnikato View Post

    what part of "Create an MP3 Version" don't they understand ?

    What is this supposed to mean?

  • Reply 25 of 73

    I own three iPods filled with music and have never purchased any songs through iTunes.  I bought iPods because I liked them and no one ever forced me to purchase them or lock me into them.  I put my own music on them.  Apple attracts weirdos like a lightning rod attracts lightning.  No matter what Apple does, there will always be someone trying to find fault with them and take them down.

  • Reply 26 of 73
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post

     

    I own three iPods filled with music and have never purchased any songs through iTunes.  I bought iPods because I liked them and no one ever forced me to purchase them or lock me into them.  I put my own music on them.  Apple attracts weirdos like a lightning rod attracts lightning.  No matter what Apple does, there will always be someone trying to find fault with them and take them down.


     

    Like you, right? You've been calling for Cook's head since he's been CEO. Don't dare bitch about other trying to "find fault", while you've been a supporter and enabler of every smear campaign and frivolous attacks against Apple. 

  • Reply 27 of 73
    oneof52oneof52 Posts: 113member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post



    Ridiculous! Fire Tim Cook!



    Am I doing this right?



    Hahahaha.  That's funny.

  • Reply 28 of 73
    rayzrayz Posts: 814member
    slurpy wrote: »
    Ridiculous! Fire Tim Cook!

    Am I doing this right?

    Almost. You need to say something like:

    "This would never have happened on Steve's watch",

    without having the common sense to check whether or not it happened on Steve's watch.
  • Reply 29 of 73
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member



    Hey everybody.

    Let's sue Porsche for having a monopoly on 911 Turbos.

    And later we can sue them for having a monopoly on Panameras.

    /s

  • Reply 30 of 73
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    Money attracts weirdos like a lightning rod attracts lightning.

    Fixed.
  • Reply 31 of 73
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,311member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tenly View Post





    Real Networks is not the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff class is comprised of customers who purchased Apple products between 2006 and 2009.

    My error about the plaintiff. I even happened to read that, but I lost my focus of this thread at "Real Networks".

  • Reply 32 of 73
    slurpy wrote: »
    Ridiculous! Fire Tim Cook!

    Am I doing this right?

    A man of few words.

    I hope you're not ill.
  • Reply 33 of 73
    rayz wrote: »
    slurpy wrote: »
    Ridiculous! Fire Tim Cook!

    Am I doing this right?

    Almost. You need to say something like:

    "This would never have happened on Steve's watch",

    without having the common sense to check whether or not it happened on Steve's watch.

    I think you meant to say:

    “This watch would never have happened under Steve.”

    And you would be right.
  • Reply 34 of 73
    deanbardeanbar Posts: 113member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post





    I think you meant to say:



    “This watch would never have happened under Steve.”



    And you would be right.



    I'll second that in a minute :D

  • Reply 35 of 73
    jonljonl Posts: 210member

    So... Apple wanted to support only iTunes DRM'd files on the iPods they created and sold. Real found a way to circumvent their measures, i.e. they performed some sort of hack. Apple responded by invalidating their hack, restoring things to the way they were when they started. It seems to me Real would have to demonstrate the start state was illegal, and if it was illegal, then it should be illegal not to play every format ever invented, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, whatever. Moreover, if Real prevails, the implication is that once hacked, you must accept the righteousness of the hack and always support it. This is beyond retarded. It's perverse.

  • Reply 36 of 73
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    I'm done with buying music. Spotify takes care of all of my musical needs for a nominal fee, Swiss mobile providers don't count data from streaming music or video services from your monthly limit and even offer discounts on services like Spotify, I think I pay 7.50 a month for it. Though I've had unlimited internet for the last 5 years so data consumption never concerned me either, last month alone I downloaded 48GB of data, it's very easy to do when you are laying in a hospital bed with a 150Mbit LTE connection.
  • Reply 37 of 73

    Y'all need to go over to Wikipedia and read their article on FairPlay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay#Harmony), Apple's original DRM system for iTunes. Lots of interesting things. For example:


    • FairPlay did allow users to burn DRM'd songs to an audio CD which, in turn, could be ripped to create a DRM-free MP3 version. (I forgot about that.) :embarrass

    • A similar complaint against Apple was made in France in 2004 but was thrown out because…

                       "1. Playing purchased music on portable players was a small part of the market;

                         2. CD Burning provides an adequate work-around to get purchased music from other vendors onto an iPod; and

                         3. There is sufficient availability of portable players that support Microsoft's WMA DRM as a viable alternative and choice for

                         consumers"


    • "In July 2004, RealNetworks introduced their Harmony technology. The Harmony technology is built into RealPlayer and allows users of the RealPlayer Music Store to play their songs on the iPod. Before the introduction of Harmony this was not possible, because the RealPlayer Music Store uses a different DRM scheme, called Helix DRM, that was incompatible with that used by Apple." (I just love this point - instead of the Harmony hack, all Real actually had to do was remove their own DRM.) :D

    • Also in 2004, Apple warned, "…Real and their customers that when we update our iPod software from time to time it is highly likely that Real's Harmony technology will cease to work with current and future iPods."

     

    I'm hoping the judge is going ahead with this case just so there can be a clear decision that will put an end to this nonsense once and for all. 

  • Reply 38 of 73
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post

     

    I won't be shocked if this is found in favor of Apple. There's been tons of complaints claiming anti trust over Apple's vertical integration and they have already ended up in Apple's favor. Also there is no proof that Apple did anything foul to get the iPod to the level of the market that it had. Or anything foul with that power. They didn't stop folks from ripping CDs for example.They also didn't restrict iTunes to just the Mac (for long) to force folks to buy said hardware and raise its power. These are the things that would be anti trust violations




    Except with books.

     

    I downloaded Apple's own iOS 8 iPhone user guide.  Apple disingenuously labels the directory the files end up in as 'epub' yet it clearly is not an epub and is not viewable on non-apple devices that can handle epubs.

  • Reply 39 of 73
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    Can someone, preferably the judge overseeing this case, tell me how Gillette for decades produced handles that couldn't be used with other companies' blades and blades that couldn't be used with other companies' handles and how this differs from what Apple is being accused of here? Hey, I've got these blades I purchased for my Gillette shaving handle. The handle broke and so I want to replace it with a handle from another brand. But Gillette won't let me use my blades with another company's handle. I'm suing!

    Interesting primer:

    http://tbmdb.blogspot.com/2009/09/razor-and-blade-business-model.html
  • Reply 40 of 73
    nousernouser Posts: 65member

    When do we start putting bad judges on trial.  I'd bet this one has a hard time finding her car in a grocery store parking lot.  Judges should be banned from ruling on subjects that they are clueless about.

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