26 July 2004
ITunes’ Monopoly On iPods Under Attack
Posted by Zane under: News; Technology .
Until now, owners of the iPod digital music player faced no dilemma when shopping for songs to play on their sleek gadget: The easiest if not the only way was to buy them from Apple Computer own music store, iTunes. But Chief Executive Steve Jobs’ monopoly on that market is about to be seriously challenged. Over the weekend, RealNetworks CEO Robert Glaser–perhaps still reeling from having his offer of an alliance with Apple rebuffed several months ago–revealed his counterattack. He is launching a system called “Harmony Technology,” which sounds bound to cause serious discordance. It lets people securely transfer music bought using RealNetworks’ music download services to an iPod, or virtually any other portable music player. “We are making it so that consumers can buy music once and play it anywhere,” Glaser said, adding he was not concerned that the technology might be deemed illegal. Jobs has not yet reacted to the announcement.
2 Comments so far...
Seth Gee Says:
26 July 2004 at 12:11 pm.
I was going to say, doesn’t this go against the “Digital File Act” that came around after Napster was shut down the first time. Also, maybe they should hit Motorola to, because they just announced that they will be releasing iTunes for Motorola phones in the first quarter of 2005. Good luck RealNetworks!
Zane Says:
26 July 2004 at 12:11 pm.
Just as you said Seth, Apple is investigating the implications of Real’s software strategy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other laws. The DMCA broadly restricts the bypassing of copy-protection technologies used in DVDs and in some music CDs and software programs.
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