So while on slashdot i found an article
by Hilary Rosen, the former RIAA CEO and chairwoman. She is bitching about iTunes and the iPod, and the fact that the iPod cannot play WMA’s. She blames Apple for the inoperability. While I don’t know the full legal details about the WMA format, no linux software players for mp3′s have access to how the WMA works (as far as I know), and have all had to reverse engineer it. This is most likely because although the API or standard must be available to companies, it is probably under a rediculous license from Microsoft, and probably costs a fortune to obtain the rights to use the WMA format.
I whish people would stop pointing blame all over the place, especially when they point it to the innovators. When was the last time that Microsoft actually did something new? Have they ever?!?!
They usually buy up a company that has an idea, or else they just copy the idea if the company is too expensive to buy. Think about every product they make, everythin has been done by someone else before.
If Hilary Rosen wanted the iPod to be compatible with everything, then the RIAA should abandon all attempts at DRM, as that only restricts the use of music. Especially as I want to play it under linux, and there is no way that DRM will make it into linux in any way that preserves the restrictions of the DRM’d music.
The RIAA is just making life more difficult for the consumer, but forcing DRM. But then they never cared about the consumer did they? That is the only explanation to sueing people for $10,000-$50,000 for downloading a few songs. How on earth could you cost a company $50,000 by not paying for music? That is more money than most people spend on their car, let alone buying some CD’s!
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