Hardball.

I'm torn. Real sucks, but so does the DMCA.

Real sort of comes off as a petulant child here. First they were begging to play nice, but were told "no." So they say "well I'm going to do it anyway! " and here we are.

ipod is on another level. after this school shopping season � ipod = 60% market share

steve jobs starts wearing diamond rings and starts screaming Bling Bling as a greeting

jonathan ive starts wearing a G-Unit necklace that spins and actually buys a house to store groupies in

al gore finally finds out what "itunes" is and downloads George Michael's "Patience" while doing the Al Gore Happy Dance�

LOL@The G-Unit comment.

I dont see this being a copyright issue... people are allowed to reverse engineer technology. having said that, this will not work with the ipod in the next few weeks

The possibility of Real licensing out their hack has been raised. Should Real be able to profit from Apple's technology without permission?

Not in America they ain't!

Amorya

If it was any company other than Real I might care. But since I have had to deal with years of their crappy software and downloading system, at this point I'd be happy to see them lose a lawsuit. I think that this music store of theirs is probably going to be a last ditch effort to save the company. IIRC Quicktime overtook Real media recently as the number 2 internet media, behind WM, and my guess is that Real will continue to become less and less relevent until they simply ceast to exist.

Plus the fact remains that Apple doesn't make any money off of their online store. So unless Real has worked out some kind of better deal wit h the record companies, I don't see the financial benefit from running one, other than the proliferation of a proprietary media format.

The one interesting idea behind Real's store seemed to be that you downloaded the music in their format, and then their software would convert it to any other format on the fly. Pretty cool concept in theory, but much better would be a new open music standard with broad support.

Little chance of that I'd say.

Real has commented on Apple's stance with something along the lines that customers should choose what goes on their ipod and not Apple.

While on other forums they are saying Apple is a monopoly compared to Microsoft. How? I mean I can see Microsoft being a horizontal monopoly because most of the music stores use it's file format while Apple only allows Apple Protected files on the ipod as well as mp3 and non protected aac files. I am pretty sure when who ever goes out and buys an apple ipod they should know that their napster downloads won't work on it that is if they actually try to be informed consumers.

Didn't Apple reverse engineer the way menus displayed in the first version of their OS?

If the iPod supported protected wma, would Microsoft react harshly? I don't think so. I own an iPod, and I love it a lot. However, I will not buy online, considering all the incompatable format bs. Sharing protected mp4 audio is easy though. Rip the DRM off with a tool called HYMN. Then encode the mp4 to mp3. And there you have it... done!

As far as I can tell, Real just engineered some some software that works on the iPod and Apple has no grounds for complaining unless Real copied Apple's code. Apple can probably render it useless with firmware updates, but Apple has to be careful because if it starts acting like a monopoly, it could draw the wrong kind of attention. Real could be setting Apple up for a restraint of trade case.

Unless I'm missing something, this is like Apple telling Adobe that it can't make movie editing software for the Mac.

.

Why shouldn't they when Apple can profit from Microsoft's technology by shipping Samba with MacOS X?

Think Hypocrisy?

The fanboy in me really wants to side with Apple on this, but I just can't. I bought an iPod, I own an iPod. That second bit is important... I OWN an iPod. Steve Jobs probably has one or two of his own with which he can do whatever he pleases. As soon as he tries to tell me what I can/can't do with mine, he's stepping over the line. Last time I checked, Apple wasn't leasing these things out.

Apple's response to this is juvenile and is so far from the company's hacker roots that it's alarming. For them to suggest that they will release an update whose primary/secondary/tertiary responsibility is to break Harmony compatibility is just plain wrong and does a disservice to all of their customers.

Apple has said repeatedly that they are only in the online music biz to sell more iPods. I fail to see how the release of Harmony doesn't help them do exactly that. Granted, they could've seen more money (ie. > $0) from the deal if they hadn't been so arrogant about licensing FairPlay, but it seems that the lessons learned from past mistakes have been quickly forgotten. Unfortunate.

Speaking of iPod hacks.... does anyone make any games/utilities other thant he stupid breakout game? You'd think that people would have sprung on these things since htey're so popular.

- Rob

My understanding is that 'Harmony' will turn a Real music store file into a .WMA or a .M4P -> Nothing will be installed on the iPod, and thus I don't think any laws are being broken either.

i think apple should buy real and tear it to pieces and dump it in the garbage where it belongs...

It's not Apple's technology. It's a technology that Real developed themselves which is made compatible with Apple's by reverse engineering.

If Apple's technology were somewhat innovative they could have patented it, and that would have somewhat protected them (though Real still would have the possibility developing something compatible using other techniques). They didn't and now Real has a compatible competing product. There's nothing wrong with that.

Fair competition is good.

I think THAT'S the more dangerous situation here...