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RealNetworks Slashes Song Prices
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Just a REAL question
Question:
Will selling unprotected music online cause the sales of music to plummet because of the dishonesty of people who rather share their purchase than let others buy for their own? Or will it actually drive the music sales up? What do you think?
Question:
Will selling unprotected music online cause the sales of music to plummet because of the dishonesty of people who rather share their purchase than let others buy for their own? Or will it actually drive the music sales up? What do you think?
Plan
I'm going to host this at
http://www.freedomofmusicchoice.net/
when the domain name propagates.
Any comments?
http://www.blogmac.net/real/
doc
I'm going to host this at
http://www.freedomofmusicchoice.net/
when the domain name propagates.
Any comments?
http://www.blogmac.net/real/
doc
anti Real blog on Real site
Real blog.. as long as it lasts
this is what you'll find on the blog, hilarious...
Real blog.. as long as it lasts
this is what you'll find on the blog, hilarious...
aldo said:
Hey genius, "it's not what you do, but HOW you do it".
Telling Steve Jobs that if Apple doesn't license it's Fairplay DRM technology that they will look into a joint venture with Micrapsoft, isn't so much "asking" as it is "threatening". Apparently it was an idle threat at that, seeing as how they are going to extreme measures to try and tap into Apple's iTunes/iPod market.
I suspect that Rob Glasser will be walking funny after Steve Jobs shoves his New Balance sneaker up his a$$!
Don't know if this has already been mentioned but if you want to buy a track you can actually burn to CD the price isn't 49 cents - this just keeps getting worse and worse!
munkle said:Don't know if this has already been mentioned but if you want to buy a track you can actually burn to CD the price isn't 49 cents - this just keeps getting worse and worse!
What is the price if you want to burn to CD? How many times can you burn it? Anyone know?
Online music stores should state their usage rights clearly up front, and not buried in small print.
Think...
Quite simply, what it does is screw up iPods. If I have 20 GB of music on my iPod (and I do) and then Real talks me into installing their player, it wipes my iPod. Some people will then call Apple to complain - even though it's clearly Real's fault. Not to mention, of course, that's it's a crappy, cheap imitation which is bad for consumers.
egor said:11 pages of stuff I'm simply not going to read, so if its been said before, I apologise, honestly, you people are so selfish for having such a long discussion!
ANYWAY, I don't see the big deal, the profit to be had from the iTMS is minimal to Apple, obviously, not even a drop in an ocean. Its just to get people to buy iPods. Real provides music downloads that will work on the iPod, this will help increase iPod sales because Real's songs are cheaper. The iTMS still has the biggest library (although I still can't find stuff I want, yet it is easily available on Amazon (and cheaper than it would be on iTMS if I could've bought it)), so that will still be the main attraction.
I just don't get it, HOW does it damage apple? Forget about whether what Real did was wrong or not.
Also, wishing a company to go bust (making alot of people unemployed) isn't very nice.
Quite simply, what it does is screw up iPods. If I have 20 GB of music on my iPod (and I do) and then Real talks me into installing their player, it wipes my iPod. Some people will then call Apple to complain - even though it's clearly Real's fault. Not to mention, of course, that's it's a crappy, cheap imitation which is bad for consumers.
Wardofsky said:
If Real was really interested in freedom of choice and allowing their customers to use an iPod, they would offer their music in MP3 format.
Instead, they created a system that breaks iPods and which isn't compatible with much of anything else.
So much for 'freedom of choice'.
MacQuest said:Hey genius, "it's not what you do, but HOW you do it".
Telling Steve Jobs that if Apple doesn't license it's Fairplay DRM technology that they will look into a joint venture with Micrapsoft, isn't so much "asking" as it is "threatening". Apparently it was an idle threat at that, seeing as how they are going to extreme measures to try and tap into Apple's iTunes/iPod market.
I suspect that Rob Glasser will be walking funny after Steve Jobs shoves his New Balance sneaker up his a$$!
Also, I was reading an interview with Rob Glaser on CNET and he states openly that they were working on Harmony before they even approached Apple. So Rob either figured Apple would say no or he just doesn't care. At least if Real had waited until Apple said no before starting development of Harmony it might imply they had some class, but as it is they just look like a bottom feeder.
munkle said:Don't know if this has already been mentioned but if you want to buy a track you can actually burn to CD the price isn't 49 cents - this just keeps getting worse and worse!
Or better and better. Depends on how you look at it.
It's already happening.anaquin said:
I love this stuff. Big mean Apple put restrictions in their product that make it hard for poor little Real to, um, put restrictions in their product.
No. It is perfectly legal to reverse-engineer a copyrighted product, you can't copy that product. This is how Compaq was able to release an IBM-compatible BIOS chip for their PC clones.djsteele said:
The DMCA prohibits reverse engineering encryption/DRM schemes that are intended for use as copy protection systems, but that does not prohibit the broader case of reverse engineering everything else that has a copyright.
That is copying, not reverse-engineering.djsteele said:
Reverse-engineering a CD would be to study it and use the results of that research to develop a way to make your own CDs, or to make your own player.
And, BTW, you can make legal copies of CDs. As long as you don't give or sell them to anybody else, you can make all the copies you want.
Copying DVDs for personal use is illegal, not because of copyright law, but only because you have to break the disc's encryption to do it - and that is illegal under the DMCA.
iPod Updater
I'd love to see the following:
Breakage of Harmony compatibility (who cares anyways, any songs purchased can always be burned and ripped into iTunes. I certaintly won't be purchasing any PC only harmony songs...)
And to make sure everyone does the update:
Increased battery life by more efficient software (dream)
Added features such as multiple on the go playlists and deletion of songs from an on the go playlist.
Now available on ALL iPod models!!! Go Real, piss Apple off!
I'd love to see the following:
Breakage of Harmony compatibility (who cares anyways, any songs purchased can always be burned and ripped into iTunes. I certaintly won't be purchasing any PC only harmony songs...)
And to make sure everyone does the update:
Increased battery life by more efficient software (dream)
Added features such as multiple on the go playlists and deletion of songs from an on the go playlist.
Now available on ALL iPod models!!! Go Real, piss Apple off!
Not quite. I've read that section of the DMCA.Spades said:
The interoperability clause says that you may reverse-engineer a DRM scheme in order to get your software to work run on a DRM-protected operating system, or to diagonse incompatibilities.
It explicitly states that this is the only reason.
Reverse-engineering a DRM scheme so that you may apply it to your own documents without a license is not permitted.
Superhob said:
Expecting CNet to say something nice about Apple is like expecting Fox News to endorse Kerry. It ain't gonna happen. CNet has an institutionalized bias against Apple and all things Apple, as it has proven time and time again.
Yvan256 said:
Exactly. I hated Real before I ever came to love the Mac. Of the dozens of Windows users I know, I'm pretty sure hatred of Real is one unanimous sentiment. Real sucks.
People who have been working with computers for more than a few years tend to hate Real for its past transgressions. Newbies tend to defend Real, until they get burned themselves. Real, on the other hand, appears to be doing all it possibly can to ensure that those newbies turn into shell-shocked veteran Real haters at a highly efficient rate. It's the one thing Real does really well.
shamino said:
I've read that section, and it seems to say that reverse-engineering is allowed as long as it's not intended to circumvent the protection on access to a work. Harmony doesn't allow you to circumvent Fairplay, so this reverse-engineering would seem to be allowed.
nagromme said:
Philips - who created the CD digital audio standard - were against these copy protected CDs being labelled as audio CDs, since they're not standard and may not play on all players. They even suggested a skull and crossbones logo as an alternative! Nice to see a company taking such a strong stance that benefits consumers.
nagromme said:
I'm afraid, I don't understand this. Non standard, copy protected CDs are wrong, but proprietary copy protected downloadable songs are good? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but you seem to be taking dramatically different positions on CDs vs online music.