Gruber decimates naysayers

[Project]

http://daringfireball.net/2007/02/command_option_control

compelling reading. I find myself in complete agreement over his counterpoints to Thurrott/Zune dude

One glaringly obvious problem with Thurrott’s suggestion that Apple license Windows Media DRM from Microsoft is that Microsoft has never offered decent support for Windows Media — and none at all for DRM — on the Mac.

If the iPod and iTunes were to support Windows Media DRM, there would need to be Mac OS X support for Windows Media DRM. And the number of PlaysForSure music stores that support the Mac is zero. Zero. Maybe this makes sense in Paul Thurrott’s world, where he thinks the introduction of the iPhone implies “the beginning of a long farewell to the Mac as a general purpose computing platform”, but in the real world, the idea that Apple would take the iPod/iTunes platform — which is currently completely independent of Microsoft’s control — and make part of it not work on the Mac and put the Windows part under Microsoft’s control, is a joke.

The truth is that the only companies that have a say in this are the Big Four music companies and Apple; the music companies because they control the rights to the music, Apple because they dominate both the legal download and portable music player markets. (That eMusic is the second-most-popular download store means several good things for Apple: (a) both of the top two download stores fully support iTunes and iPod playback on both Mac and Windows; (b) neither of them use Microsoft technology;

I doubt this was ever even considered. Microsoft is so hell-bent on switching places with Apple — so that they control an overwhelming DRM lock-in advantage — that they’re missing out on the fact that Apple is offering to relinquish its own (actual, existing) DRM lock-in advantage. I.e. Microsoft’s problem with the iTunes Store isn’t that it has created an unfair playing field, but rather that it has prevented Microsoft from creating an unfair playing field tilted in its own favor.

If Apple succeeds in persuading the Big Four to drop DRM, that would seemingly be good news for the Zune, but it would keep Microsoft from what it really wants, which is a long-term self-perpetuating DRM lock-in advantage.

Which brings us to the most deliciously jackassed aspect of Thurrott’s call for Apple to voluntarily bridge the DRM gap, which is that Microsoft is so DRM-happy that they don’t even offer cross-support between their own DRM standards. Zunes don’t work with PlaysForSure DRM and PlaysForSure gadgets don’t work with Zune DRM.

Hook. Line. Sinker

 

[calyxman]

Great article! Jobs basically hit the nail on the head when he stated that 90% of music distribution is in CD format, readily piratable, and, most likely, resulting in illegal distribution in peer-to-peer networks.

The myopia of the music industry is absolutely absurd.

Long live Steve Jobs.

 

[mduser63]

I love Daring Fireball and John Gruber's writing. This is no exception.