RealNetworks' Harmony should be 'thwarted'

[MacBytes]

Category: 3rd Party Software
Link: RealNetworks\' Harmony should be \'thwarted\'
Posted on MacBytes.com

Approved by Mudbug

 

[Photorun]

Man, all these Maczany's who drank the Koolaid are coming out of the woodwork on this one. What the writer failed to mention is Apple will NEVER license it's service out, for better or, in all likelihood, for worse. The opportunity to make the iPod not just dominant but super dominant and more bulletproof to competition is going to suffer again at the "mine mine mine" mentality of Jobs, the same mentality that effed up Apple's dominance at every turn by becoming so self-centric that people looked for more flexible (admittedly craptacular) alternatives. And here we go again and the result, iPod, Apple lovers, and consumers all suffer.

 

[pyrotoaster]

Man, all these Maczany's who drank the Koolaid are coming out of the woodwork on this one. What the writer failed to mention is Apple will NEVER license it's service out, for better or, in all likelihood, for worse.

Actually, Apple just licensed Fairplay to Motorola for their Mobile iTunes partnership.

Real should definitely be thwarted at this, and I believe Apple has solid ground for a Copyright lawsuit against the company. Even if that failed, Apple could always play dirty and change FairPlay with iTunes and iPod updates the second Harmony comes out.

 

[iMeowbot]

Real should definitely be thwarted at this, and I believe Apple has solid ground for a Copyright lawsuit against the company.

Solid? No way. This isn't about copying code, but interfaces. Apple lost that one against HP and Microsoft (that is, on the elements that weren't thrown out because Apple had given the rights away), and Lotus lost against Borland on macro languages and menu structures. The best decisions so far don't support the idea that methods of operation are copyrightable.

When the Supremes got the Lotus case, they were deadlocked 4-4 (with one judge recused). That leaves the situation extremely murky, and that was before DMCA which explicitly endorses this kind of practice.

 

[pyrotoaster]

Solid? No way. This isn't about copying code, but interfaces. Apple lost that one against HP and Microsoft (that is, on the elements that weren't thrown out because Apple had given the rights away), and Lotus lost against Borland on macro languages and menu structures. The best decisions so far don't support the idea that methods of operation are copyrightable.

Solid might be overstating it, but there's a case to be made. FairPlay isn't an interface, it's actual code that Apple uses to copy-protect songs.
This isn't a case of Real using a similar method of copy protection, it's Real reverse-engineering Apple's code.

At the very least, a lawsuit would cause problems for Real and maybe force them to temporarily halt Harmony development.

 

[Keynoteuser]

what about this

What if they never actually cracked the FairPlay system. What if their software strips out their DRM when it sticks the songs on the iPod? One would think it was more than that, but if Real somehow missed the fact that there are apps out there that can pull songs back OFF an iPod, they might have actually done it this way. The other thing they could have done is figure out what the iPod looks for to know it can play a song and made their stuff similar, but not exactly the same as Apple's, they just made it close enough to work on the iPod. Who knows.

 

[Nermal]

I still think that Harmony is A Good Thing™.

If Real's music store comes to NZ before iTunes does, and they both work with iPods, which store do you think I'll use? I'd love for iTunes to officially become available here (I'm sick of typing in fake US addresses to buy songs ), but if Real gets here first then I'll definitely give them a go.