RealNetwork’s online Apple petition backfires

[leisuremonkey]

Hoping to get a little people power on their side in their battle to try and get Apple to open up the iPod to downloads from their online music stores, RealNetworks launched a “Hey Apple, Don’t Break My iPod” online petition which quickly turned against them and filled up with such witty anti-Real chestnuts as, “REAL CRAP. rob you are a loser!” and “If you guys dare to touch my iPod!! Oh Boy…! Im so going to rip out your…". They ended up removing the link from their site and putting up another one which only lists people’s names and nothing else.

[sgarringer]

whats up with this crap at the bottom of real.com? if they respected apple, they wouldnt rape them by stealing their technology directly from underneath them, violating god knows how many laws by reverse engineering it, and then trying to run apple out of business by slashing prices.

respect for real before reading comment = 0%

respect for real after reading comment = -10%

Certain intellectual property and related rights of the iPod player and various things associated with it are claimed by Apple Computer,Inc. The use here by RealNetworks® is for identification purposes only. Real is not affiliated with or sponsored or endorsed by Apple. That being said, they seem like cool folks and we certainly wouldn't mind grabbing a beer with them.

[stoid]

I particularly like this line:

That being said, they seem like cool folks and we certainly wouldn't mind grabbing a beer with them.

Yeah, they'll grab a beer, but only if Apple pays for it!

[Chaszmyr]

Originally Posted by sgarringer

whats up with this crap at the bottom of real.com? if they respected apple, they wouldnt rape them by stealing their technology directly from underneath them, violating god knows how many laws by reverse engineering it, and then trying to run apple out of business by slashing prices.

respect for real before reading comment = 0%

respect for real after reading comment = -10%

I can't find where you are getting that quote from, but it is an interesting thing for them to say...

[stoid]

Originally Posted by Chaszmyr

I can't find where you are getting that quote from, but it is an interesting thing for them to say...

If nothing else, from this post.

[Daveman Deluxe]

I can't believe how many people are lashing out against Real for this. It has long since been determined that what Real has done is legal, and I suspect it will only help Apple sell more iPods. Apple should have licensed FairPlay long ago. There are people who don't like the iTMS for one reason or another but love the iPod. Is it smart to lose sales of iPods to those people simply because they prefer another online music store whose files won't play on the iPod? Not at all. In fact, that's VERY poor business indeed.

Let's get something straight: Real has NOT cracked FairPlay DRM. You cannot use Harmony to strip the DRM from FairPlay-protected AAC files downloaded from the iTMS. It only makes Real's Helix-protected AAC files playable on the iPod.

What Real has done is NOT illegal. In fact, it's specifically protected by law. It is legal to reverse-engineer software so as to offer compatibility between your product and that of another company. That is all Real has done.

Finally, this should only help Apple in the long run. Those who don't like the iTunes Music Store now have another option for downloading legal music that will work on their iPods--one that offers higher-quality AAC files, I might add. If I had a PC, I would be downloading off of Real's music store and listening to my downloads on my iPod right now.

[rueyeet]

Actually, Real has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker in coming up with Harmony....but I don't think that it's a bad thing. There should be a single open interoperable standard for DRM, none of this proprietary stuff. Buy once, play anywhere: that's how it should be.

However, it does throw a wrench in the works of anyone who'd planned to gain revenue from licensing DRM schemes....like, say, Microsoft? I guess Microsoft doesn't care whether Real's "hacks" WMA DRM along with Fairplay, if it'll serve to break Apple's hold on the market.

[redAPPLE]

according to Real (and Apple?) the DRM FairPlay is open source. if it is open source, does Apple have the right to license it?

i think the reason everybody lashed out on Real was the way the wording was publized and for a normal person (who might not know all the details), the whole propaganda looked it Real was backstabbing Apple.

i think while Apple has the lead, they should partner with reasonable partners to (still) have something good, should m$ come with their brand of online store.

everyone fears m$. i wonder why?

[stoid]

Originally Posted by redAPPLE

everyone fears m$. i wonder why?

ask Netscape

[munkle]

Harmony is not going to help sell more iPods. Behind all the pro choice talk Harmony is simply an attempt to sell more songs from Real to iPod users. There's nothing wrong with this of course, it's just common sense for Real to want to do this.

What is objectionable is their 'choice for the consumer' campaign, when all Real is trying to do is to lock users into their proprietary format instead of Apple's proprietary format. The fact that Harmony is only compatible with Windows is just too much irony for me too handle!

The iPod gives you a lot of freedom of choice, more so than most players, just not when it comes to rival DRM platforms. But what makes the iPod such a great music player is the package of iTunes, iTunes Music Store, Airport Express etc, that comes with the iPod. It's this close quality control which makes the iPod a superior user experience. Apple has shown that it is willing to collabrate with partners, as demonstrated with the HP deal, but only with companies that are going to bring something to the table, Real obviously do not fall into this category.

The only company to gain from Reals' Harmony is Real. In fact iPod users will suffer if they use Harmony, as they will not be able to continue using iTunes to control all their music.

But there is a lot at stake here - namely DRM Music. Whilst Apple might be making money from the sale of iPods rather than purchases from the iTunes Music Store currently in the future it's going to be hard to maintain the same level of success and profit margins. The download music industry on the otherhand is in very early stages and is likely to become a huge industry in the future. At the moment Apple are poised to become the market leader and industry standard. There's a lot more at stake than just what songs will play on the iPod.

I loved reading the comments on Real's petition though

[applebum]

Originally Posted by rueyeet

There should be a single open interoperable standard for DRM, none of this proprietary stuff. Buy once, play anywhere: that's how it should be.

Why???? For some reason, we have determined that our music and our movies should be universally (sp) playable across all platforms - DRM is this horrible thing because it locks you in to a platform. Yet with games we accept that we are tied to a platform. If someone buys Grand Theft Auto for Nintendo (don't flame me if it isn't available for Nintendo, this is just an example), they don't expect to be able to play it on the PlayStation. Now they don't call that DRM, but because the game is platform specific, it works pretty much like DRM. I tend to believe that digital entertainment is eventually going to go the way of games and become platform/player specific. There will be 3 or 4 big players with differing DRM and you will buy your music or your videos with that DRM and you will have to have the specific player that matches up to that DRM.

[SaaciPlank]

Taking the link down from their website was a big mistake. I've set up a petition to bring the original link back, as the petition should really be publicised to exploit the failure of Real's campaign. As for my beliefs - no, apple shouldn't monopolise the online music scene, and they don't, so... meh! Well here's the link: h**p://www.petitiononline.com/saaci72/petition.html

[quagmire]

By removing the first petion and eliminate comments is a horrible thing. It shows Real is a coward and won't take the heat. I hope real dies in the next 2 years.

R.I.P Real.