DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Removes iTunes DRM with Virtual CD Burner

[Leo Mauler]

--- On Thu, 10/30/08, Jeffrey Watts <jeffrey.w.watts at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:28 AM, Leo Mauler
> <webgiant at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > Defending Apple isn't the right tack to take. 
> > They're making their own bed, don't give them 
> > yours to sleep in instead (on top of everything 
> > else they're taking away from you).

> Apple has stated NUMEROUS times that they don't
> like DRM,

Actions speak louder than words.  Currently they issue DRM music files which are cheaper than non-DRM music files, and their DRM files are indistinguishable from their non-DRM files.  And as Jon has been so quick to point out, there's a FREE TOOL to *legally* remove the DRM from their files.

Apple can say what it likes in its press releases.  It is what it chooses to sell (and its choice to make you pay more for non-DRM, while claiming better quality and not delivering it) which tells the real story. 

Incidentally, Microsoft has stated NUMEROUS times that they are a supporter of Open Source.  Do you believe their statements, or their actions?

> and they've actively encouraged labels to issue 
> their music DRM-free (hence iTunes plus).

iTunes Plus Music is indistinguishable from iTunes.  Typically when one pays more for an optimized version of a product, one expects better quality in the more expensive version than in the much cheaper version, yet Apple appears to be discouraging use of iTunes Plus by charging more for music files which aren't any better quality than the DRM music files and, as Jon has pointed out on numerous occasions, the Apple-brand DRM music files can have their DRM removed easily.

> The problem is NOT Apple, the problem are the music
> labels.

The problem is not jewelers who sell diamonds from sources which abuse child slave miners, the problem is the sources which use child slave miners, and the jewelers are *forced* to sell those diamonds and thus deserve no blame?  Thats not what the gemstone markets think, and bad publicity from "blood diamonds" has caused all the major jewelers to implement diamond tracking systems which help prevent diamonds mined with forced child slave labor from reaching the markets in developed nations.  It takes a real scumbag jeweler to trade in "blood diamonds".

Another example is the defense that employers are giving about the hiring of illegal immigrants: "Americans won't work for the wages we can afford to pay, so we have to hire illegal immigrants."  Clearly you can't blame the employers for hiring illegal immigrants, since they have to employ who they can employ, and the record labels...err, the illegal immigrants, are the only ones who will provide the kinds of employees that make the employers' businesses profitable.

Unless someone is blackmailing or threatening Apple to force them to sell DRM music (which is ethically wrong as it will eventually constitute Apple stealing money from the consumers when the DRM system changes/ends), Apple is to blame for choosing to sell DRM music.

If a market does not exist for a product, then the product will not be sold.  I was given to understand that this was a basic economic point.  If Apple doesn't like DRM then it should refuse to sell DRM music.  If Apple sells DRM music then clearly Apple is *part of the problem* because Apple has willingly created a market for DRM music.

Or in other words, if Apple chooses to create a market for DRM music, then Apple is encouraging the purchasing of DRM music and as such Apple is a big part of the DRM problem.  If they didn't sell the DRM music then they wouldn't be a part of the problem.

Frankly I'm getting confused about all this pathetic whining that a company which creates a market for an ethically-wrong product to be sold isn't to blame for sales of that product.  Either the labels are holding guns (metaphorical or literal) to the heads of Apple iTunes executives, *forcing* them to sell DRM music, or Apple is choosing to sell DRM music all on their own and thus are a big part of the DRM problem.