My Favorite Story Thus Far Regarding the Apple-vs.-RealNetworks Thing

Ernest Miller:

If you buy anything from iTunes, you’re still locked into Apple. If you buy an iPod, you can buy from Real’s music store, but what real advantage does that provide? A DRM connoisseur might say that you will have the option of using other players in the future, but so what? Anyone who knows anything about DRM knows that you can’t trust any of these competing formats. Perhaps in a few years one might want to buy another brand of portable music player, but what happens if Real’s DRM fails in the marketplace and is squeezed out? What good did the flexibility do?

If people really care about DRM and its potential costs in the future, then they probably are avoiding DRM all together and sticking with non-DRM formats such as MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.

★ Friday, 30 July 2004