The iPhone looks flat-out epic. And, although I'll be holding tight to my beloved Pearl for a good while, once Cupertino gets the kinks out of version 1.0, I'm sure I'll be a future owner.
Cutting to the chase... the tech policy angle....
Since it was disclosed on the Friday before New Years, you might not have noticed, but there is a new federal antitrust suit against Apple. Says AP...
the suit is over Apple's use of a copy-protection system that generally prevents iTunes music and video from playing on rival players. Likewise, songs purchased elsewhere aren't easily playable on iPods.
For court documents, see Todd Bishop's blog.
This suit is similar to another one in the US and one in France. And, speaking of France, we all remember that reel around the legislation fountain not so long ago that was supposed to ensure iTunes interoperability.
Surely, if the iPhone becomes a big seller and Apple dominance of the online music market extends, than the company only becomes a bigger target for lawsuits and regulated interoperability mandates.
Both forces could have a big impact on tearing down DRM-enabled walled-gardens. But, so could a bigger one: The market.
Yesterday, Wired music reporter Eliot Van Buskirk reviewed recent happenings that, all considered, equal a trend toward the breakdown of proprietary DRM in online music. On the lawsuit and legislation issue, he notes:
A class-action lawsuit accuses Apple of antitrust behavior due to the fact that songs bought from iTunes can only be played by iPods or iTunes (as well as cell phones made in partnership with Apple). Apple tried to have the suit dismissed, claiming that forced interoperability would inhibit innovation, but the judge wouldn't dismiss the case, which is now headed to a "case management conference" on Jan. 22nd.
Apple's recent SEC filing shows (bottom of page 26) Apple admitting the possibility of being forced to react to legislation demanding that iTunes-purchased music play on other MP3 players. If this happens, perhaps Apple would go with Sun Microsystem's open-source DRM plan.
But that would involve new devices, as well as a third party exercising influence over the iPod. Steve Jobs would hate that for sure. A switch to the MP3 format would work with existing devices and let Apple keep control. Sure, a lack of DRM would upset the labels, but then again, they don't have a choice (see above).
But, again, even more important is a capital "i" Irony: The biggest proponents of DRM might have to abandon it in order to create leverage against an all-powerful-mobile-phones-everywhere Apple. Buskirk writes:
When CD sales finally tank completely, record labels will be faced with a tough decision: distributing music nearly exclusively through Apple's iTunes store or rethinking their approach to digital-rights management, or DRM, from the ground up.
Already feeling hamstrung by Apple, there's no way they're going to let Steve Jobs completely monopolize the distribution of their music. Labels that survive the CD-sales nosedive to come could decide it's time to treat music fans like paying customers, rather than like high-level pirates. Instead of launching another PressPlay or MusicNet, partnering with multiple MP3 stores would make more sense.
EMusic is the number two digital music retailer behind Apple -- even without access to the massive and popular major label catalogs -- because it sells digital music rather than digital rights. The labels want Apple's dominance to end, and MP3 looks like the only way to make that happen.
BTW, hint to the class action plaintiffs, be sure the judge gets hip to eMusic. Apple's lawyers wrote the following in their request to get the most recent suit dropped:
"Without DRM, legal online music stores would not exist. Thus, this complaint does not challenge Apple's use of some form of DRM." (link to PDF).
The roll-up to the big June iPhone release will be interesting, but so will be the machinations behind the scene in the battle for leverage before Apple takes its music service to the next level.
And, since I am a two or three-trick pony, I can't help but mention the wifi capabilities in the iPhone and what it might mean for mobile P2P should gardens be trampled. You can read our feverish thoughts on the issue here.
-S. Garrett
Actually the phone looks slick for $500=600 range, if you ask me. I am not sure if apple would release it in international markets yet. Any updates would be appreciated.
Posted by: Endurer | January 11, 2007 at 02:55 PM
iPhone is really awesome and attractive but i think it would be use by the wealthy society as it is too expensive.........
http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com
Posted by: Cheap Computers | July 13, 2009 at 11:51 PM
This is a good,common sense article.Very helpful to one who is just finding the resouces about this part.It will certainly help educate me
Posted by: Microsoft Office 2007 | October 27, 2010 at 07:21 PM
Awesome to hear you're at CES. I hope you hear and report back on soehimtng huge from Google. I just got back from Las Vegas after being there for two weeks. I wish I could have stayed longer for CES.Interesting thoughts on Apple. Who will win the #1 media player or #2-100 combined. I'm flying out to Macworld tomorrow so I'm hoping for soehimtng big at the Stevenote.
Posted by: Lavan | July 06, 2012 at 09:28 AM