How DRM Saved The Mac... and could kill it

[Mr Skills]

There's a lot of talk about how the iPod's halo effect has helped Mac sales, but I believe the iPod has done more than this - in a sense, it saved the mac as a family media platform. Without the dominance of the iPod and iTunes, legal music downloads might have bypassed the mac completely, as vendors turned into Windows Media as the only choice.

But what is happening with video downloads might reverse this positive trend. Windows Media DRM is becoming the de facto standard all over the web for DRM movie downloads. Macs are in danger of being on the fringes for video downloads. So my questions are:
1) Are movies on the itunes store enough to avoid macs being marginalised in the video arena?
2) Would the best thing for the Mac platform be to license Fairplay video DRM?

Discuss
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EDIT: not sure if this should be in Apple, Industry and Internet Discussion

 

[Sesshi]

As far as video is concerned, make it as easy as iTunes is for audio to rip/import video. That'd be a start. Not all of us have much truck with DRM. I've never used iTunes Music Store.

 

[hulugu]

Apple is playing this game very well thus far, by launching the iTunes/iTMS/iPod triumverate onto the Windows platform, Apple has created a trojan horse for Quicktime and AAC. So many people have added Quicktime to their machines without even realizing it, and thus Apple has a newly found advantage they can exploit. By adding movies to this system, Apple can maintain a hold on digital media for a few years.
However, the possibility that a much better competitor, a player with so many cool attributes with the equivalent cool factor, will eclipse the iPod is coming. Apple can stave off this possibility, but eventually someone like Samsung will do it (Sony is doomed, I think).
Apple has to think further in the future, towards a period of distinct components that communicate over the network. A home network is becoming a mixture of PCs, gaming consoles, discreet wireless nodes, and other devices, and any future solution must put this in mind.
Thus, Apple should be at the head of the table in creating a new digital standard unfettered by a specific license. This would blunt Microsoft's WMP, which is simply a move toward putting digital media in their hands, and yet would also keep Apple from becoming the same kind of boogeyman. Everyone makes money, everyone gets to sell the next great box.

But, I've been accused of being an idealist.

 

[Timepass]

Only thing you need to remeber is Quicktime on PC compared to WMP is no contest. WMP is by far a better player for playing movies. Quicktime is crap at best on PC. It good for the web but out side of that it pretty crappy. No full screen support unless you pay for it. WMP Full screen support out of the bag and is an easier player over all to use on PC and to me WMP is good for playing movies. Not as good for music but really good for movies and TV shows.

 

[Mr Skills]

Don't forget, regardless of player quality etc, the real issue is that Windows Media is the only option for video DRM.

All over the web, protected video content is appearing that is unavailable to Macs (e.g. movie downloads for Sky subscribers) and this time it is not because the companies don't want to support Mac users - they simply don't have the option if they want to protect their files. Microsoft DRM is the only game in town.

Of course, it could be argued that this falls under the Microsoft antitrust thing... but no-one seems to be pursuing them for it.

 

[mcarvin]

This issue has confused me since we were talking about working with an online media company this year. Their rationale was that Apple won't open up necessary parts of their OS (specifically stated as NOT Fairplay) for the MS DRM to properly work. My question back was "If WM DRM is just an extension to a codec, then why can't MS port the DRM to OS X?"

I have to be missing something here. I'm not a software engineer, and the easy response from Windows folks is always "it's Apple's fault". In this case, I'm not so sure.