iTunes DRM backlash

[Muunsyr]

Apple have just been told that their DRM in iTunes is illegal in Norway. France and Germany seem to be in the process of agreeing.

Source:
http://www.out-law.com/page-7691

With any luck we may see a supported alternative to iTunes for iPod/iPhone interface. That and the ability to buy music from iTunes and play it with a Zen, etc.

[Starscream]

yeah ive read about it a while ago.

Itunes music can only be played on an Ipod and in france they were thinking of making a law against such things.

i hope many countrys follow as then Apple doesnt have a choice other then changing it.

[Frodin]

Yay for Norway being forerunners in this matter! Luckily, Norwegian legislation on consumer rights is pretty strong IMO. I hope Apple gets spanked for this, but personally, it does not make a difference, I am not going to buy 128kbps AAC-files (except the one that I bought just for testing) that cost just as much or more for a full album than a full, physical cd at the local store. People are becoming way too lazy if they buy from iTunes Store out of convenience, if they have the physical alternative in their vicinity, for just a tad higher price and way superior quality

[Cuthalu]

128kbps... that's a bad joke. I won't even consider bying those things untill they use lossless-formats. Giving the same money for less just isn't reasonable. Besides, corporations get more profit because they don't have to manufacture physical cd's etc. Total ripoff.

[Drunner611]

That and the ability to buy music from iTunes and play it with a Zen, etc.

Yeah, that will never happen.

[Vapor]

Countries push.....

....Apple pulls.

I'd bet if this escalates, Apple will simply close the iTunes store in those countries. Either that or they up the price and allow people to do what they want with the songs from those countries.

[Theli]

Either that or they up the price and allow people to do what they want with the songs from those countries.

From what I understand, it's not the DRM restrictions themselves that are being criticized but rather the fact that songs bought at the iTunes store are by design not playable by Mp3 players other than the iPod. I think the idea is that if you buy a song, regardless of where from, you should be able to play it without having any superfluous and unnecessary restrictions on hardware.

And apparently Finland and Holland has followed suit.

[Vapor]

Just like I said, "...and allow people to do what they want with the songs from those countries."

Part of the DRM is that it can't play on non-Apple MP3 players. Because there is no DRM that plays on all MP3 players, their options are to ditch it or ditch future sales from those countries.

Theoretically they could make a DRM scheme that doesn't care about MP3 player transfer though....might take awhile to get through testing and approval from above considering how insecure that would be for transferring to other computers (not that burning a CD and transferring isn't an option ).

[Theli]

Just like I said, "...and allow people to do what they want with the songs from those countries."

Strangely put in my opinion.
I mean, I don't think they will remove the DRM completely. Allowing other manufacturers to include FairPlay support for their hardware would make more sense.

(not that burning a CD and transferring isn't an option)

Burning iTunes songs to a CD and then ripping the same CD is an option the same way as downloading the album over p2p is an option. As it technically means bypassing the copy protection I'm not sure it's allowed (the ripping part, that is).

I wonder how it will turn out, but as things are going right now (add the Zune music store to the list) we may see the day where all hardware vendors have their own DRM scheme and switching brand means flushing your contents collection (audio/video) down the toilet.

[frankR]

That's why I won't touch an iPod with a 20 ft pole. I want control over the software, I don't want to use iTunes or their propriotary format.

[Major_A]

Get mediamonkey and tell iTunes to go to H. I bought a CD the other day off of iTunes, found a $25 gift card I didn't know I had. I was a little upset that the files were 128 kbps, if I'm buying the CD at least make it 320. I don't like the thought of their DRM crap on my computer. I created a playlist, burned the purchased songs to a CD, then used EAC to burn it back as a MP3. The total time to do this was 10 minutes. Now if I want to create a MP3 CD for my car I can actually listen to what I just bought. Last I checked iPod was a MP3 player not a M4P player.

[shimq1]

That's why I won't touch an iPod with a 20 ft pole. I want control over the software, I don't want to use iTunes or their propriotary format.

iPods and iTunes also support the MP3 format.

[Revv23]

Burning iTunes songs to a CD and then ripping the same CD is an option the same way as downloading the album over p2p is an option.

Or apple could let you play it how you want in the first place.

I don't like itunes and i don't like ipod, but as far as portable mp3 players go, there any better.

[Major_A]

The reasons I decided on the iPod are:
1) 80GB space
2) plethora of accessories
3) iPod ready car CD player, iPod adapter was inexpensive
Sure they may be better players out there but they don't have the space or abundance of accessories.

[Poodle]

I don't even bother downloading 128kbps files even if they are "free".

[frankR]

iPods and iTunes also support the MP3 format.

I use FLAC and Ogg. MP3 is old school.

I prefer to upload files directly to the drive without using any software. I don't think you can do that with an iPod.

[Kingcarcas]

As if i needed anymore reasons to love Scandinavia

I use FLAC and Ogg. MP3 is old school.

I prefer to upload files directly to the drive without using any software. I don't think you can do that with an iPod.

How do you rip directly to HDD using FLAC?

[Theli]

How do you rip directly to HDD using FLAC?

Personally I use Foobar2000 to rip CDs. It has native support for FLAC encoders, meaning you can rip the songs directly into FLAC.

As far as media players go, I always choose the smaller players. For audio: Foobar2000, a 1.6MB download compared to iTunes' 35MB, that supports a lot more audio formats and starts up in under a second even with a play list of 3805 songs. Its interface is very similar as well, only cleaner.

BTW, are the songs purchased from the iTunes store really in 128KB/sec... it sounds awfully low to me.

[uOpt]

I use FLAC and Ogg. MP3 is old school.

I prefer to upload files directly to the drive without using any software. I don't think you can do that with an iPod.

The iPods take mp3s and playlists though some OpenSource packages. I used GNUpod successfully.

Dunno about FLAC or ogg. Ogg sounds awful last I tried.

[n91htmare]

the ONLY reason i used an ipod is because it flawless connects with my car's alpine system.

[frankR]

As if i needed anymore reasons to love Scandinavia

How do you rip directly to HDD using FLAC?

I use CDex to rip CDs to FLAC, one CDex/FLAC running on each core, one disk in each drive.

All you need to know is the FLAC front end commands to adjust encoding efficiency, that's all it needs.

[frankR]

The iPods take mp3s and playlists though some OpenSource packages. I used GNUpod successfully.

Dunno about FLAC or ogg. Ogg sounds awful last I tried.

I think 96k Ogg sounds better then 128k MP3.

I heard somewhere apples codec is similar to ogg.

[IFMU]

I am going to presume everyone here is aware of our anti-warez stand and are speaking of ripping CDs that they PERSONALLY own and are NOT sharing/giving away to others.

I am also going to presume anyone else who posts in here is following the same standards. We cannot, do not and will not condone illegal use in any fashion on here. Discussion of such can get XS into legal troubles if that happens and we will not allow that to happen.

So, keep it clean and legal folks.

[tomb18]

IFMU, nice policy.
I am kinda sick of everyone bashing DRM, blaming microsoft and apple for their adoption. Just about everyone is to blame for the situation. How many of us can truely say we haven't at some time download software or music or borrowed some and made a copy. Or turned a blind eye to our kids downloading all the music they want...
Basically we are thieves, and the industry is protecting themselves. Apple and Microsoft are only providing the OS's.
That being said, Apple should make their iTunes available to all devices.

[dqniel]

Don't use Itunes anymore and they'll have no choice but to change their policy. It's the thieves' fault that we have DRM and it's the consumers' fault we let it sticks around. Don't buy DRM-protected media and they'll have to rework it.