Re: News Flash

[Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca>]

David E. Fox wrote:

> On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 12:02:48 +0100
> Florian Kulzer <florian@molphys.leidenuniv.nl> wrote:
> 
>> It seems to me that Steve Jobs likes DRM very much, as long as it makes
>> it difficult for competitors to interoperate smoothly with iTunes and/or
>> the iPod. (I know that the end user has relatively easy ways around
> 
> As an entrepreneur, DRM must be seen as a "good thing" (tm). Any
> technology that would force users to buy new copies of their favorite
> songs when they change devices means more $$ to the record companies.
> We've seen it before with cassettes and 8 track tapes, and the record
> industry saying you couldn't tape your record collection for use in
> your car.

Fortunately, at least in the US, they lost on that argument.  The movie and
TV industries lost twice on this as well:  The first time trying to prevent
people from timeshifting using VCRs, and again later with DVRs.

> Now as a (presently) ipod-less user, I don't have to buy a new cd for
> each portable device, car stereo, component or computer cd-rom, at least
> not yet. But the drm makes me think that if I had bought stuff from
> itunes and my ipod broke, and I bought another similar device, I'd just
> have to go to that similar device's store and download and purchas the
> same songs again :(.

Get a PalmOS PDA like the PalmOne Tungsten E2, and a copy of AeroPlayer. 
It's freebeer, but comes with an Ogg Vorbis plugin.  Since the author is
under the impression that MP3 decoders must also pay royalties, it costs
$10 for MP3 support.