By Jo Best, 7 April 2005 15:05
NEWS US legislators are debating whether to force Apple's products to interoperate with Microsoft's.
The Congress have been considering a plan that would outlaw music protected by proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology, such as Apple's FairPlay, which stops iTunes downloads being played on Microsoft digital music players and vice versa.
However, yesterday's Congressional subcommittee hearing on 'Digital Music Interoperability and Availability', which included debate on mandating interoperability for digital music, received a 'hands off' message from industry representatives.
William Pence, Napster CTO, told the subcommittee that the music industry will eventually promote interoperability itself without the need for government intervention.
"It is my belief, and the essential point of my participation today, that marketplace forces will continue to drive innovation in the DRM arena with attendant consumer benefits - new ways to enjoy digital music at a variety of different price points - while also gradually 'solving' the interoperability problem," he said.
However, one of the biggest players in the digital market, Apple, did not attend the hearing.
Chairman of the subcommittee, Lamar Smith, criticised the Cupertino company's failure to show up, saying: "This interoperability issue is of concern to me since consumers who bought legal copies of music from Real could not play them on an iPod. I suppose this is a good thing for Apple but perhaps not for consumers.
"Apple was invited to testify today but they chose not to appear. Generally speaking, companies with 75 per cent market share of any business, in this case the digital download market, need to step up to the plate when it comes to testifying on policy issues that impact their industry. Failure to do so is a mistake."
Last year RealNetworks cracked Apple's DRM to make songs from its web song shop compatible with the iPod.
While Napster's Pence did advocate a more open approach from Apple, he said mandating one through government was not necessary.
"Napster believes that allowing the iPod to work with multiple service offerings would benefit consumers. Nevertheless, I do not see government intervention as the solution, as it would stifle competition and innovation that will benefit consumers and copyright owners at a very early stage of the market's development," he told the subcommittee. "It does not seem prudent for government to pick a winner in the continuing... marketplace battle between Apple's FairPlay DRM and its competitors."
Raymond Gifford, president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, agreed: "Are open standards preferable? In some cases, yes; in others, no - you are making a trade-off. Are proprietary or non-proprietary standards going to give the greatest amount of innovation? We cannot be sure... For public policy, all this should inspire a great deal of caution for mandating any given outcome or specific standard."
Gifford added: "Much of the brow-furrowing over interoperability in digital music stems from the success of Apple's iPod platform. I urge this subcommittee not to give in to the politics of platform envy, however."
Comments
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1. anonymous
Hmmmm. Seems to me that there already is a Windows version of iTunes. The title of this article is a little misleading. Of course, Windows led music download sites aren't compatible with Macs. Shouldn't that be the question?
2. anonymous
Let's see, Apple has over 75% of the MP3 hardware/music market and Microsoft is offering MP3 downloads that can't be played on Apple's Ipod.
I wonder who is at lose here and who is soliciting to congress to ban DRM for the time being?
3. anonymous
I bought a diesel engined vehicle and I cant fill up at stations that only sell unleaded gas. Please Please make a law to make diesel interoperable with the other fuels out there.
I also have this Phillips head screwdriver and my screws are all flat heads...theres another opportunity to protect consumers ...who cant follow simple directions.
4. anonymous
Where were the congressional morons when Microsoft designed the MS Word file format without publishing the spec? As it stands, if you want to compete with Word, you've pretty much got to reverse engineer it.
5. anonymous
Contrary to your subtitle, I don't really believe that Napster was actually trying to side with Apple in this particular instance. Right now, it is in Napster's best interest that there not be legislation mandating one file format/DRM. Why? If there was to be standardization, which format would most likely be chosen? In this case, legislators would choose to standardize on the format that has the majority of marketshare, and that would be Apple's FairPlay DRM and music encoded in AAC neither of which Napster uses. Napster has already put a huge investment in backing their Windows Media-based encryption and music format. What happens when Congress declares Apple the winner of the format wars and everyone except Apple has to switch over? Yeah, it would be ugly.
6. anonymous
How about a law to make software from every vendor run equally well on Mac and PC?
How many of you know the parable of the mote & the beam?
Here we have Apple with an advantage in one tiny little segment of the computing world and big bad Microsoft wants government protection.
7. Alsee
The interoperability problem only exists because of the DMCA. Eliminate the horribly broken DMCA and the market will resolve these issues just fine. Companies (and individuals) will be able to write software that does the required translation. You'd then be able to move music you bought from any one company onto any device from any other company.
8. anonymous
It makes more sense to modify the DCMA to allow for easier reverse engineering.
9. Michael
For starters, iTunes is compatible with Microsoft. Lucky windows users have the same access to the iTunes store as mac users, so this headline is very very misleading.
On the issue itself, why on earth is the government sticking its nose in. At the end of the day its up to people to decide. If i bought a HP printer cartridge from HP, i wouldn't expect it to fit in to my Epson printer. Nor do i expect that film i bought last week on VHS to fit in to my DVD player. Why should it be a different for music?
10. DIrk Spasmo
The best way to cut down on piracy would be to have 1 standard format available to all. This would allow consumers to use whatever music shop offered the best prices and selection.
Shopping around is not easy - potentially you need multiple players for multiple formats or a method of converting 1 to another. I have an Ipod and a use Itunes - not necessarily through choice, but simply because it's the most hassle free.
It gets even more complicated when companies start requiring their own player to be used (eg Sony).
It's not a question of whose player is better, it's a question of opening the market to true competition.
11. anonymous
I don't get it. Doesn't the iPod play all unprotected mp3s as well as those with FairPlay? So how can it be Apple's fault that whenever some ephemeral market participant adds an alternative DRM format to its mp3s, they don't work on its devices? I hope the confused tone of the article was only a reflection of the confusion of Congress.
And the statement that "Apple's FairPlay, which stops iTunes downloads being played on Microsoft digital music players" simply isn't true -- the Microsoft Windows version of the iTunes application plays all FairPlay songs. Does the phrase "Microsoft digital music players" refer to some mp3 device made by Microsoft? I didn't know they made one. They haven't marketed it very well in the U.S., because the iPod is much more popular. Or is it an attempt to describe all non-Apple devices? That's pretty funny -- Microsoft is being blamed for every mediocre product (even every non-Apple product) on the market...
12. Jason Holland
I don't see Microsoft being forced to make their OS compatible with Mac applications...!
13. Stobiemas
The whole debate is moot. You have gov't officials checking in with technology and standards, most of which they don't understand. It seems to me that companies who have abused the system most are now crying foul.
Not one company prior to Apple's iTunes managed to get it right. Apple has and should be applauded for nailing it on the first shot.
I have to agree with a previous poster- If the gov't comes down on Apple about DRM, then there should be a day of reckoning for ALL software developers to open their file formats.
Such a waste of money and waste of time. Funny that the same body found no problem with Netscape being etched out of the browser business by MS.
The moral? Hire the best lawyers that money can buy, lobby like hell and you'll go places. Innovation will get you nowhere.
14. Bob Gould
Okay if the government is going to do things like that I want Ford Chevy and Dodge parts to interchange. What would that do to the price os parts and cars for that matter. I think the government needs to butt out they have way to may controls already.
15. Arnell
This debate seems pretty ridiculous.
Apple is selling a product that can be used on mulitple OS's, supported by iTunes. If you want to take advantage of it, you can purchase a CD and rip them to your iPod or you can choose to purchase online via Apple's iTunes Music Store. If you want to take advantage of it, you have to purchase an iPod. This is nothing new. Sony did it with the VHS and the DVD.
Despite whe the subject states, iTunes is completly compatible with Microsoft.
Is it because Apple has actually taken a majority of a market and Micro$oft (and it's affiliates and joint effort companies) is feeling a bit vulnerable? It's like asking software developers to make all Windows applications to be compatible on other hardware other than Intel machines. Hell if you paid for the software you should be able to use it any machine, right? No, that's wrong. The market shows it preferences and in this case, they're choosing Apple, iTunes and their iPod. Yes, this can change, but whine about how unfair it is, seems ridiculous.
Yeah, I think the DRM is a hassle, but it's still the easiest way to download music and sync to my player. No other product can do this as well as Apple has so far. Like myself and many others, we have made this choice. Until someone makes a cooler digital music player, a better software interface and easier than Apple has done, I'm sure I'll move to them.
16. Matthew
Most of the above analogies completely miss the point. Diesel vs unleaded? How is that a similar situation? Maybe if you bought your car from Esso and it only worked with Esso Diesel and not BP, Shell etc...
The real question here is what on earth has it got to do with the government? Apple have obviously created a very strong product - well done I say. I wonder who has the government by the balls on this one?
The story is little different to DVD write/rewrite technology. Every manufacturer came up with their own but the end products didn't have much differentiation so there was probably no clear leader. Apple have turned the iPOD into a must have accessory.. well played Apple!