Apple Comments On DRM-Free Tags: ‘No Comment’ June 3, 2007
READ MORE Apple , Digital Audio , MP3 , Music , Online , iPod
Apple has decided to ignore the growing displeasure of certain users of its new DRM-free, iTunes Plus service. I scribbled a bit about this yesterday and while I assumed that Apple would have to comment on why DRM-free music is tagged with a customer’s name, account and email details, I may be disappointed. The company has already declined to comment on the issue to Wired [thanks for the heads-up, Cal].
Instead, it pointed them to a Jupiter Research analyst, Michael Gartenberg, who had been fully briefed on iTunes Plus. He said it could be used for proof of purchase tracking, prevent piracy, or facilitate upgrades through identifying existing tunes that could upgraded.
"In terms of sharing files, you're not legally permitted to do that anyway," he said. "You weren't supposed to that in the first place. You've technically violated the service agreement. Just because you've taken away the locks on the doors doesn't mean you can walk into someone's house and walk away with the TV set."
The privacy set are not amused. Fred von Lohmann, a senior intellectual property attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, commented:
“There's absolutely no reason that it had to be embedded, unencrypted and in the clear. Some of the privacy problems, in light of this, is that anyone who steals an iPod that includes purchased iTunes music will now have the name and e-mail address of its rightful owner.”
Expect this to run for sometime and maybe, just maybe, Apple will someday deign to tell us peasants [a.k.a. customers] what’s actually going on. -Martin Lynch
[Wired]
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"Break Up Sky!" Demand TV Rivals - Again June 3, 2007
READ MORE Entertainment , Gizmodo UK , HDTV , Home Entertainment , TV
It’s the classic case of multi-billion pound spilt milk but Sky’s key rivals have covertly approached TV regulator Ofcom to demand that Sky be broken up.
Virgin Media, BT Vision, Setanta and Top Up TV all want the satellite broadcaster sliced and diced because, essentially, they can’t compete with it. They claim Sky has an unhealthy dominance of the marketplace, which is true, and that if Sky is broken up there will be more competition. However, Sky hasn’t even seen the official proposal from its rivals: A spokesman told the Independent on Sunday:
“We're in the increasingly odd position of not having seen this submission. The reluctance of these four companies to put their case fully to us does not indicate the greatest conviction in their arguments.”
Sky has weathered such investigations in the past but it may be forced this time, at the least, to make the wholesale prices it charges for its content more transparent. For us, it means that rivals could offer services like Sky Movies and Sports at more competitive rates.
This is all good but, just don’t hold your breath.-Martin Lynch
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