Apple Computer Quietly Blocks RealPlayer's Technology

[MacBytes]

Category: News and Press Releases
Link: Apple Computer Quietly Blocks RealPlayer\'s Technology (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20041222231037)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[Fender2112]

The interesting thing is that Real has not yet had any complaints. Maybe folks realized it would be a lost cause and just didn't bother to purchase any of the music.

[Chip NoVaMac]

I am not sure this is positive or negative.

I welcome to a point Apple trying to protect their market, but at the same point opening the market can have benefits as well.

[shamino]

I find it incredibly amusing that the system software tha blocks Harmony has apparently been out there for two months or so, and the news articles about it are few and only appearing now.

Obviously, there aren't enough Harmony users for anybody to really care about this issue.

Unfortunately, the article writer made the same mistake WRT iPods that everyone else seems to constantly make:
Apple's protection scheme limits the iPod to songs downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store or songs in the generic MP3 music format.
This is simply untrue. You are not limited to iTMS songs or MP3s. You can also use a wide variety of other unprotected formats, including AAC, AIFF, WAV, Apple Lossless and WMA (through a converter.)

The iPod blocks protected files from other vendors, not all files. Songs you rip yourself can be in the same AAC format that iTMS uses. Same for songs downloaded from the (admittedly few) legal download sites that sell songs without DRM.

[Nermal]

I am not sure this is positive or negative.

It's negative. Thanks to Apple's monopoly on the hardware, I can't buy songs online here in NZ and play them on an iPod (Apple refused to licence Fairplay to NZ's only online store). It seems that Apple would rather have people buy compatible players rather than their own.