itunes is worthless

iTunes isn't too bad for finding and downloading audio feeds. But it is EVIL when it comes to buying music... And by evil, I mean the "Fairplay" DRM it sticks on everything...

iPods are just as bad. I can possibly forgive the proprietary battery, but the DRM issues aren't even remotely acceptable.

I've been using a DRM-free Iriver player for quite a while now, and upload my songs using Universal Mass Storage (ie. unit shows up as a hard drive, and I drag over the Mp3 files that way). Sure, I don't have the fancy custom-playlist support, but I can enjoy my music on my player, or transfer it back to my PC with no issues...I can also use Linux to sync, without special software.

Some reading material:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay

And if you must use an iPod, try these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPodLinux
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbox


:thumbup: Join the fight against DRM! :thumbup:
 
"FairPlay will allow a protected track to be used in the following ways:

The protected track may be copied to any number of iPod portable music players.

The protected track may be played on up to five (originally three) authorized computers simultaneously.

The protected track may be copied to a standard Audio CD any number of times."


I'm not sure why these are considered not even remotely acceptable and... evil
 
TwistedLincoln said:
iTunes isn't too bad for finding and downloading audio feeds. But it is EVIL when it comes to buying music... And by evil, I mean the "Fairplay" DRM it sticks on everything...

iPods are just as bad. I can possibly forgive the proprietary battery, but the DRM issues aren't even remotely acceptable.

I've been using a DRM-free Iriver player for quite a while now, and upload my songs using Universal Mass Storage (ie. unit shows up as a hard drive, and I drag over the Mp3 files that way). Sure, I don't have the fancy custom-playlist support, but I can enjoy my music on my player, or transfer it back to my PC with no issues...I can also use Linux to sync, without special software.

Some reading material:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay

And if you must use an iPod, try these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPodLinux
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbox


:thumbup: Join the fight against DRM! :thumbup:
Click to expand...


While I do agree with you in that dragging and dropping music onto your music player like a disk is great I agree with Cheesesailor in everything else
 
Blaine said:
They should be unless someone is trying to pirate music.
Click to expand...

I don't pirate music, nor do I advocate it. But I would never buy music that is limited in these ways. Personally, I have more than 5 computers in my home. That means I can't put the song on all of my machines without transferring licenses. Not to mention the fact that I have other, non-iPod mp3 players that will never play those songs unless I first burn a CD, rip it, and re-encode back to Mp3. That will of course cause a loss of quality.

And incidentally, Apple can adjust your abilities using Fairplay any time they want. So if one day they decide to limit the number of times you can burn a CD with iTunes sometime in the future, they can. And there's nothing you can do about it.

The reasons DRM is "evil" is not because it is inconvinent. It is objectionable becasue it takes away the ability for legitimate customers to use the product they purchased as they wish. I'm not saying that people should be able to buy one song from iTunes and give it away to all of their friends. But any software or product that "dials home" or requrires a distributor's permission for you to use it is unacceptable.

I have encountered many people who have purchased music on iTunes, only to later lose their only PC to a hardware failure. Even though they had uploaded thier songs to their iPod, they were unable to download them back to their new PC, due to the Fairplay system. They were faced with either paying for the tracks again, or using software to strip out the DRM, which is currently illegal in the US under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

As both consumers, and people who produce creative content, it is important that we support the idea of freedom when it comes to technology. Using technology to punish legitimate, law-abiding people does nothing to stop the pirates-- it only angers and distances the very people who would support us.

I don't want to get into this anymore here, because I'm quite sure politics will come into play... I invite anyone who would like a friendly debate to visit the forums on my website (www.twistedlincoln.com/forum) and chat with me there.
 
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TwistedLincoln said:
I don't pirate music, nor do I advocate it. But I would never buy music that is limited in these ways. Personally, I have more than 5 computers in my home. That means I can't put the song on all of my machines without transferring licenses. Not to mention the fact that I have other, non-iPod mp3 players that will never play those songs unless I first burn a CD, rip it, and re-encode back to Mp3. That will of course cause a loss of quality.

And incidentally, Apple can adjust your abilities using Fairplay any time they want. So if one day they decide to limit the number of times you can burn a CD with iTunes sometime in the future, they can. And there's nothing you can do about it.

The reasons DRM is "evil" is not because it is inconvinent. It is objectionable becasue it takes away the ability for legitimate customers to use the product they purchased as they wish. I'm not saying that people should be able to buy one song from iTunes and give it away to all of their friends. But any software or product that "dials home" or requrires a distributor's permission for you to use it is unacceptable.

I have encountered many people who have purchased music on iTunes, only to later lose their only PC to a hardware failure. Even though they had uploaded thier songs to their iPod, they were unable to download them back to their new PC, due to the Fairplay system. They were faced with either paying for the tracks again, or using software to strip out the DRM, which is currently illegal in the US under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

As both consumers, and people who produce creative content, it is important that we support the idea of freedom when it comes to technology. Using technology to punish legitimate, law-abiding people does nothing to stop the pirates-- it only angers and distances the very people who would support us.

I don't want to get into this anymore here, because I'm quite sure politics will come into play... I invite anyone who would like a friendly debate to visit the forums on my website (www.twistedlincoln.com/forum) and chat with me there.
Click to expand...



I have a question. If you went into a store and purchased a cd can you play it in 5 computers ? Can you play it in 5 cd players ? Or course not because you are limited in the medium that the music comes in which offers the record companies a certain level of protection.

Truthfully I would love it if I bought a song to be able to use it in any fashion that I wanted but that just isn’t realistic.

For the people that lost their music from itunes when their pc crashed why didn’t they backup their songs? You can copy all the music to another harddrive, the ipod , dvd and put them back then all you have to do re-login to your account and you will be able to play your songs again.
Also apple generally offers a one time free re download of lost songs for a pc crash.

If your cd breaks after you bought it is it the responsibility of the company that sold it to you to back it up ? No , as a consumers it’s our responsibility to protect our investments. I do agree with you that it’s important to support the idea of freedom and I don’t really like restrictions on things I paid for. I don’t necessarily agree with DRM but I understand why they use it.
 
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