I am getting a bit bored with the DRM thing that the Europeans are going on about.

I figure they are steamed up about a perceived lack of competition in the sale of Mp3 players. Perhaps the only reason iPod’s are selling so well because of some lack of competition. These “suits” are sick of handing over wads of cash to their spoilt children perhaps.

Netherlands’ consumer protection agency spokesman Ewald van Kouwen said, “When you buy a music CD it doesn’t play only on players made by Panasonic,” Kouwen declared. “People who download a song from iTunes shouldn’t be bound to an iPod for the rest of their lives.”

I would like to point out that there are not too many Mp3 players that are not platform specific. If I want to buy wmv files as a DRM download, I can’t do it with a Mac and an iPod. Should I be beholden to buy a Microsoft product in order to even purchase music?

The iTunes music store allows the purchase of downloads to a computer only, either Mac or PC. If you want to play that music on a CD player be it Panasonic or whatever, burn an audio CD. If you don’t own an iPod rip that CD as an Mp3 and put it on any Mp3 player, with no DRM attached. If you purchase an iPod you get the benefit of the performance of the free software, iTunes, that allows syncing the original DRM AAC encoded audio.

The DRM is the electronic virtue of the deal Apple has with it suppliers of music as downloaded data, not a way to force the purchase of an iPod. I do not own an iPod but I do purchase from iTunes music store, shit I can even hear the music as it comes out of the speakers, and no iPod in sight.
If these blokes in Europe are scared of a lack of fairness in the music download business take a look at the Zune. Now that is locked up as tight as a fishs’ butt.

I can’t believe the French are up in arms about FairPlay, what’s next the Japanese demanding a stop to over-fishing in the North Sea? I don’t think you can even use the word champagne to describe the color of an armchair fabric.

A deadline has been imposed to make iTunes compatable with other music players or they will take Apple to court.

Bring it on I say.