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Originally Posted by NatCh
But what Apple did was say, "okay, here's a really cool music player that'll play whatever music you have electronically -- oh, and by the way, we've got a service that sells music too, but that music can only play on our players." (that's changing now, of course)
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Well, Apple didn't say
whatever music you have, but
whatever music in mp3 format, which is the quasi standard for digital music. Sadly, there is nothing like a standard in ebook formats yet...
I use Linux, and neither Apple nor Sony support Linux directly. I don't complain because it's my decision, but for buying a device, a certain amount of functionality has to be usable. Open devices are a great benefit for all.
I have to give an example with portable music:
Instead of an iPod I use a Sony MD-Recorder - at the time I had to chose, mp3 players where to expensive for me and NetMD was very new, so I didn't know much about it and didn't want to use it.
Some time ago I bought a Sony MD-Deck via eBay, together with ~80 MDs. Sadly, all of them had music on them I didn't like, but more sadly, all MDs where recorded using Sony's NetMD technology. I could not erase them with my non-NetMD devices. But I couldn't even erase them with my NetMD-Recorder (which had replaced my first unit) without using Sony's infamous SonicStage software, which is - surprise! - windows only.
This means, to
get rid of a lot of music which I didn't own, didn'r pay for, didn't like, and to be able to use the MDs again for recording
my own music from CDs I bought, I had to find a Windows PC whose owner allowed me to install this crappy software and erase the MDs one by one.
This is DRM gone way to far.
In my opinion devices and software should stay as far apart as possible.
I gladly pay for content but I don't want to feel forced or limited.
- If anybody wants me to buy a reader/player, there has to be a possibility to use my own content on it, in an open format I choose.
- If anybody wants me to buy content (ebooks, music...), it has to be in an open format, which I can convert to my liking and to fit my existing and future devices.
- If anybody wants me to buy content through software bundled with their devices, this software has to be available on the OS I use, or I won't use it.