Real hacking the iPod

[3G4N]

"RealNetworks Plans to Sell Songs to Be Played on iPods"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/26/technology/26real.html

"RealNetworks Inc., the maker of media-playing software, has grown tired of waiting for Apple Computer Inc. to share.

Tomorrow, without Apple's authorization, RealNetworks will start to give away software that will allow people to buy and download songs from its online music store and then play them on Apple's popular iPod portable devices in addition to those that use the Windows Media Player format and RealNetwork's Helix format.

This will be the first time any company other than Apple has sold songs for the iPod. While the Microsoft Corporation has freely licensed the Windows format to various music stores and makers of portable players, Apple has kept its business proprietary. This has helped Apple keep the dominant market share both for online music stores and portable players with hard drives, the more lucrative half of the player market.

..."

 

[bousozoku]

That's interesting from a group which can't get its own format to work well on Mac OS X. It should be interesting to see if they can succeed, even at a minimum. Of course, many people here have had some success with the newest player, so perhaps, there is hope.

 

[SilentPanda]

Can I chuckle when Apple releases some iPod patch which makes the Real files not work anymore?

 

[slughead]

Can I chuckle when Apple releases some iPod patch which makes the Real files not work anymore?

Yes, I give you permission.

Why would companies sell music online? The profit margins are slim as hell.. Well at least they are with Apple's store. Unless music companies lower their 'cut' from music downloads for other companies, it really wouldn't be worth it.

If the top legit download service in the world can't turn a profit..

 

[GeeYouEye]

This is going to be interesting... did they happen to stumble across a DRM'd format that the iPod plays natively, or will you have to reformat the iPod... I'd guess the latter.

 

[slughead]

This is going to be interesting... did they happen to stumble across a DRM'd format that the iPod plays natively, or will you have to reformat the iPod... I'd guess the latter.

M4p is an open format.

 

[Horrortaxi]

FairPlay DRM is not an open standard. It's very very propriatary and Apple hasn't shown any interest in licensing it. Real apparently got their derivative by reverse engineering Apple's.

Let me see if I get this right: When I backup a DVD I bought I am breaking the law because I'm using reverse engineering to break CSS. When Real reverse engineers FairPlay and then says they're going to license their version of it, that's okay?

I have to be missing something because this is way to blatant to even try to get away with.

 

[G5orbust]

Somehow this does not look good for Real...

Apple branded .ram/.rm player, anybody?

 

[Chaszmyr]

If Real thinks the only thing that makes their music downloading service suck is lack of iPod support then they are sadly mistaken.

 

[w00tmaster]

FairPlay DRM is not an open standard. It's very very propriatary and Apple hasn't shown any interest in licensing it. Real apparently got their derivative by reverse engineering Apple's.

Let me see if I get this right: When I backup a DVD I bought I am breaking the law because I'm using reverse engineering to break CSS. When Real reverse engineers FairPlay and then says they're going to license their version of it, that's okay?

I have to be missing something because this is way to blatant to even try to get away with.

The difference is you are an individual, and Real is a corporation with ties to the RIAA. Thus the law works differently for you vs. them. It shouldn't, but that is the way US law works right now...

 

[OldManJimbo]

You got that right -

If Real thinks the only thing that makes their music downloading service suck is lack of iPod support then they are sadly mistaken.

One of the nicer aspects of switching to the Apple/Mac platform was the ability to completely avoid REAL and their programs which always seem to not quite work but manage to invade every corner of any PC on which they're loaded.

 

[Horrortaxi]

The difference is you are an individual, and Real is a corporation with ties to the RIAA. Thus the law works differently for you vs. them. It shouldn't, but that is the way US law works right now...

Possibly. I'm certainly no lawyer. It may be that this doesn't violate the DMCA at all. It's clear that Real are real jagoffs though. Through experience you probably learned to avoid their products, but take a look at this link to see just how deep it goes. They're bad, dirty, evil, Barbara Streisand. They don't deserve anybody's business regardless of how they're getting their stuff to play on an iPod.