Want an iPhone? Beware the iHandcuffs

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/business/yourmoney/14digi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin' target='_blank'>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/business/yourmoney/14digi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin</a><br /><br /></div><i>"STEVE JOBS, Apple’s showman nonpareil, provided the first public glimpse of the iPhone last week — gorgeous, feature-laden and pricey. While following the master magician’s gestures, it was easy to overlook a most disappointing aspect: like its slimmer iPod siblings, the iPhone’s music-playing function will be limited by factory-installed “crippleware.” If “crippleware” seems an unduly harsh description, it balances the euphemistic names that the industry uses for copy protection. Apple officially calls its own standard “FairPlay,” but fair it is not."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/14DIGI_600.jpg" /> <br /><br />Nice to finally see mainstream media talking about the evils of DRM. As the author points out, at least Microsoft is willing to license it's DRM scheme, whereas Apple is operating in essentially a closed-loop system. I'm an advocate for Apple's hardware and software, and their online store, but even I can't endorse their DRM platform. I won't buy a song from iTunes unless it's absolutely unavailable anywhere else. I still buy my music on CDs and rip it to my computer and portable media players. I shudder to think what will happen someday when a competitor comes along and grabs significant market share from Apple. The outcry from consumers locked into the iPlatform will be deafening.

[Vincent Ferrari]

It's nice to see the mainstream media discussing DRM and as usual, the mainstream media gets it wrong.

Apple's iPod is not "crippled" in anyway by DRM if you don't buy your songs from iTunes.

Period.

In fact, the only complaint I have with the Zune's DRM is that it applies it to songs that aren't already DRM'ed, but in essence, their DRM is a non-issue if you rip your own.

Honestly, this idea that Apple "locks" you into a platform is so obviously untrue that it amazes me people are still saying it.

Understand one thing. I hate DRM, but I've accepted it as a fact of life. The truth is that Apple's DRM is for one thing only. They make the stuff you purchase an investment in their platform which makes it cost-ineffective to switch platforms.

That being said, you're only "iCuffed" if you want to be, and you can make full use of an iPod without ever buying so much as one song from iTunes.

Just like the Zune.

Just like every Plays for Sure device.

You're only handcuffed by DRM if you choose to be, and if you choose to be, that's the price you pay.

[alese]

...
Honestly, this idea that Apple "locks" you into a platform is so obviously untrue that it amazes me people are still saying it.
...


So I guess you can buy songs from other stores and play them on your iPod without breaking DRM?
Or what about video? Can you play some other format instead of .mov on your iPod (and iPhone for that matter)?
Yes Microsoft's DRM is restrictive, but I don't think that Apple is much better (if at all) and in Apple's case the whole platform is much more closed to Apple properiatery formats. Microsoft is still learning to do that...

[Vincent Ferrari]

No, just like you can't buy a song from Napster and play it on an iPod.

And .MOV is not a format, it's a wrapper. In the case of the iPod it's a wrapper for MPEG4 (open standard) or H.264 (open standard). You're still not locked in, however, as you're more than welcome to rip your own DVD's using freely available software just like you are on every other platform.

Now, as for the "platform being closed to properiatyr [sic] formats," that's utterly ridiculous and demonstrates that you don't own a Mac and have never used one. Have no fear, I shall demonstrate for thee thy shortcomings...

Apple has a little program they produce called Quicktime. You may have heard of it. It's on most PC's too. Where Macs differ from PCs is that Quicktime on the Mac is extensible in numerous ways including the formats you can play. On my Macs, I have Divx codecs for quicktime. I have various AVI codecs. I have MPEG4, H.264, Motion JPEG, and so on. NONE of those components are made by Apple except for the two MPEG4 codecs (Mpeg 4 and H.264 which is really a variant of MPEG4). I can also play WMV with no problems. All of these formats work in iMovie for editing.

On iTunes, I can play MP3 or AAC (both encrypted or unencrypted) and I can play WMA (unencrypted) on iTunes as well. Oh, and I can also play Apple Lossless, a format developed by Apple for Apple and available on PC's as well.

The only time you're "locked" in and "closed" to anything is if you choose to buy your songs on iTunes. That being said, not one other platform is open by those standards.

There is no Windows-protected store for Mac users. There is no ability to play Windows-encrypted music / video on OSX. In fact, there's no way to take any of your Windows-Media-Purchased content to any platform other than Microsoft's Windows. Add to that the recent addition of the closed-loop Zune, and you have to wonder... Is Microsoft any less closed? You have Plays for Sure (closed) and Zune (closed) both locked to the Windows platform.

If you want to make the argument that Apple and MS are six of one and half a dozen of the other, fine, but Apple is hardly unique in using DRM to keep you on the ranch, and they're hardly locking you in if you don't want to be.

Now that we've disassembled that argument, can we move on to something more substantive and less 1999?

[alese]

True .MOV is properiatery wrapper, just like .WMV and as far as I know you can't just use MPEG4 capable player to play .MOV file, open standard or not. If you want to play .MOV you pretty much have to use Apple's Quicktime that's properiatery in my book.

Maybe I'm wrong, but for me the "beauty" of Apple platform is it's tight integration between hardware and software products, it's just that if you want this integration, you are locked to specific hardware, specific software and specific formats.
Of course you can use third party software for compatibility with outside world and codecs for playing other formats in Quicktime, but this can only be done on Mac. Can you play different formats on iPod or can you do it on future iPhone. As far as I know iPhone is going to be closed for third party SW and if Apple doesn't provide viewers and players for different formats out there, the mail and multimedia capability of the iPhone will be a litle restricted.

Again don't get me wrong, I don't think Microsoft is any better in trying to lock people into it's own formats and standards, the difference is only that in my view Microsoft, for now, still maintains more open platform and/or is easier to licence it's stuff from than Apple.

[The Yaz]

I'm not sure this makes a difference to this discussion, but I do not see where iTunes' restrictions are hampering my use of the music I purchase from them.

When my kids ask to purchase a couple of songs from iTunes, we always create a playlist of the new nusic and burn an audio CD. iTunes then notes the songs on the CD and asks whether we want to rip and replace the AAC files (we have defaulted iTunes to rip from audio CD to MP3).

iTunes does the ripping and when its done all the songs we've purchased are DRM-free and we have a CD backup of our purchases.

We need to do this with our music collection because we have a mix of iPod and non-iPods in the house. The MP3 files play fine on all of them.

I have not looked for a solution with the videos, but since we only have one 5th gen iPod, its not a concern at this time.

I would think this would work going the other way as well (converting wma to MP3).

Steve 8)