"We are likely to rule against Apple, but it is fair to hear their point of view," Mr. Thon said. "Consumers should be able to play music they have purchased on any device they want."
I'd like to play it on my 8-track player...yeah, pass a law that makes apple provide me a free 8-track with the songs I've downloaded.
Mr. Thon said that he himself had bought a large number of songs from iTunes for about 1 euro apiece, and now wanted to transfer them to his new Nokia N80 cellular phone, but could not.
Sure he can, just burn them on a CD and convert them to MP3 format. The labels are the ones stopping Apple from doing so, but as AFAIK, there's no law stopping individuals from doing this. Why aren't they bugging Nokia (a Scandinavian company) from providing the tools necessary for this task?
"I just cannot imagine an argument in favor of stopping someone from using a song they purchased," he said.
The problem with MP3 and other open formats is the easy of transfering and lack of tracking. I don't completely agree with DRM, but it's a complicated issue. You can't live with it, but you can't live without it.
He dismissed the claim Apple has often made that its policy helps combat copyright violation. "They are not protecting against piracy, but instead encouraging it," Mr. Thon said. "When consumers cannot copy an iTunes song onto their mobile phone, they will get a download of it free from Napster."
This guy is a bit out of touch. Napster isn't free anymore. It's not illegal either. So who cares if people starts purchasing subscriptions to Napster today? |
