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[News] Apple Bullies Blogger to Protect Lock-in and DRM; FSF Protests

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Apple copies Microsoft tactics in Itunes row

,----[ Quote ]
| Sam Odio, operator of bluwiki, did what Jobs' Mob demanded only because he 
| said he lacked the money to take on the fruit-themed toymaker. 
| 
| He told AP that, when a lawyer calls you up and implicitly threatens 
| litigation that would bankrupt your little project, you obviously have no 
| choice but to comply.  
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/05/apple-copies-microsoft-itunes

35 Days Against DRM — Anti-DRM actions

,----[ Quote ]
| We'd like to get a physical presence on your local main street and outside 
| major DRM retailers -- activists from all over the world, coming together to 
| inform citizens of the dangers of DRM. We will have leaflets and signs that 
| you can print, use and distribute. Encourage your local free software user 
| group, chapter of Students for Free Culture and other anti-DRM activists to 
| join you. We will post your event on DefectiveByDesign and others can sign-up 
| to join you.      
`----

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/days-protest

Apple is actually fighting to promote and spread DRM, just like Microsoft.
Another reason to shun Apple.


Recent:

35 Days Against DRM -- Day 7: Prince: Friends without benefits.

,----[ Quote ]
| Mike McCarty sends in his horror story of being a Prince fan, as a reminder
| of some of the tricks being pulled on music fans in this DRM age. Mike wins
| one of our T-shirts and a DRM-free album from Magnatune.
`----

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/day07-prince


Valve boss lets off steam about DRM

,----[ Quote ]
| PRESIDENT OF VALVE SOFTWARE Gabe Newell has said that he thinks the DRM on
| computer games is "just dumb".
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/03/valve-boss-lets-steam-drm


DRM is always anti-user

,----[ Quote ]
| No user likes DRM. What Cory Doctorow said about Sony is really true for all
| DRM: “No Sony customer woke up one morning and said, “Damn, I wish Sony would
| devote some expensive engineering effort in order that I may do less with my
| music.”". Expanding the DRM acronym (to mean “digital restrictions
| management” or “digital rights management”) is a matter of what side you’re
| on. If you’re on the user’s side, the side that says you ought to be able to
| treat stuff you bought as your own, you’ll not forget that “digital rights
| management” is “private language” as well. It’s language that exists to
| promulgate the publisher’s perspective instead of the user’s perspective thus
| reframing the debate to getting us to believe that our needs are less
| important or completely ignorable. The thing that makes DRM interesting to
| publishers is how well it can restrict users from doing what users want to
| do. Hence digital restrictions management is a more honest way of looking at
| what DRM means.
`----

http://www.digitalcitizen.info/2008/11/28/drm-is-always-anti-user/


Apple's new MacBooks have built-in copy protection measures

,----[ Quote ]
| Apple's new MacBook lines include a form of digital copy protection that will
| prevent protected media, such as DRM-infused iTunes movies, from playing back
| on devices that aren't compliant with the new priority protection measures.
`----

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/18/apples_new_macbooks_have_built_in_copy_protection_measures.html


MP3 Store Guide: ‘Don’t buy DRM’ (like iTunes)

,----[ Quote ]
| Yesterday korporate download sites HMV, Woolworths, 7digital, Digitalstores,
| Tescodigital, Tunetribe, and Play.co launched a new ‘100% MP3 compatible’
| logo devised by the Entertainment Retailers Association.
`----

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/17493


EFF: Apple DisplayPort DRM Will Lead to More Piracy

,----[ Quote ]
| When Apple released its new MacBook and MacBook Pro models, as well as
| updated MacBook Air models, one feature of those latest laptops touted by
| Apple was their Mini DisplayPort video connection. This new connector is part
| of an open standard and is smaller than the DVI, mini-DVI, and micro-DVI
| ports found on the previous generation of Apple laptops. But there's one
| feature of the Mini DisplayPort on Apple laptops that isn't sitting well with
| many users--High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP).
`----

http://www.pcworld.com/article/154583/.html?tk=rss_news


EFF Proposes DMCA Exemption for IPhone Jailbreaking

,----[ Quote ]
| The U.S. Librarian of Congress is required to issue exemptions to the
| anti-circumvention clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the law
| that makes it a crime to work around encryption or Digital Rights Management
| protecting copyrighted materials. This year, among the exemptions proposed by
| the public is one that would make it legal for consumers to hack their phones
| (PDF link) via a process called jailbreaking, in order to install third-party
| applications available from sources other than Apple's App Store.
`----

http://www.pcworld.com/article/154915/.html?tk=rss_news


Apple swings DMCA at Hackintosh maker

,----[ Quote ]
| Just two weeks after US District Judge William Alsup threw out wannabe
| Mac-clone vendor Psystar's countersuit against Apple, the One True Mac-Maker
| has un-holstered another weapon in its campaign to crush the Florida-based
| upstart.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/02/apple_psystar_dmca/


What might end Apple’s open source pass

,----[ Quote ]
| Apple has replaced Microsoft as the chief foe of open source. (Picture from a
| student assignment sheet at Bodine High School in Pennsylvania.)
|
| This was in part a matter of necessity. Apple had to put DRM on its iPod or
| it would get nothing to sell. It had to become a big advocate of the DMCA to
| keep its suppliers.
`----

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3130


EFF Blasts Apple For Fraudulent DMCA Takedown Of Wiki Page

,----[ Quote ]
| The EFF has stepped up to walk through the many, many reasons why there's no
| DMCA violation on the site, and Apple's takedown notice appears to be
| fraudulent. Yes, the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA do say it's
| illegal to offer a technology, product, service, device or device to get
| around DRM, but an open discussion on a wiki is not any of those things.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20081125/2330182955.shtml


The Electronic Frontier Foundation Doesn't Like Apple's Attitude

,----[ Quote ]
| I have to agree. Talk is talk. Encryption and other forms of code obfuscation
| are communally practiced throughout the worlds of proprietary and open source
| software. Also, encryption predates personal computers and Apple by many
| years. Where would security software end up if people were barred, directed
| by lawyers, from ever discussing methods of disguising code?
`----

http://ostatic.com/177097-blog/the-electronic-frontier-foundation-doesnt-like-apples-attitude


Apple Levels DMCA on IPodhash Project

,----[ Quote ]
| The worst thing about DRM? The things it makes people do. Take the iPodhash
| project, a group of coders dedicated to reverse-engineering Apple's database
| files on the iPod classic and iPod touch. Doing so allows for third-party
| utilities to access information on the iPod, which is particularly useful for
| those who want to use their iPods on Linux, since there's no version of
| iTunes available for that platform.
`----

http://www.pcworld.com/article/154424/.html?tk=rss_news


EFF Berates Apple Over Open-source ITunes Project

,----[ Quote ]
| Apple's attempt to quash an effort to help the latest iPods and iPhones work
| with non-Apple software such as the Linux operating system is out of line,
| the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Tuesday.
|
| [...]
|
| Because iTunes does not run on Linux, the iPodhash project is important to
| the Linux community, Odio said.
|
| Founded in 2004, Bluwiki is a side project for Odio, an Internet entrepreneur
| who said he supports the iPodhash project even though he's not involved with
| it.
`----

http://www.pcworld.com/article/154533/eff_berates_apple.html?tk=rss_news


Anti-DRM campaign calls for MacBook boycott

,----[ Quote ]
| Each day for the next 35 days, the "Defective by Design" campaign by the Free
| Software Foundation (FSF) will name and shame a different product it says
| consumers should boycott because of the use of Digital Rights Management
| (DRM). The FSF has launched its campaign with an attack on Apple. Although
| Apple boss Steve Jobs spoke out against the use of DRM in iTunes Store in
| early 2007, most of the music sold through Apple's online shop still comes
| with Apple's FairPlay DRM. The iPhone and iPod Touch have been criticised by
| the FSF on a number of occasions for adding "even more layers of DRM". With
| its new MacBooks, Apple takes protection even further.
`----

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/119625


The iPhone Is Now Doomed

,----[ Quote ]
| I cannot claim to be a developer, but I have been watching the whole iPhone
| application development issues with interest. As of today’s news, it appears
| that the iPhone development process is like this:
|
|    1. Ask Apple for permission to make an application.
|    2. Sign a non-disclosure agreement.
|    3. Invest time and money into an iPhone application.
|    4. Ask Apple for permission to sell or give away your application.
|    5. If Apple says YES: start making money and hope Apple does not change
|       their minds.
|       If Apple says NO: shut up and deal with it. If you say anything, Apple
|       can sue you, further raising the wasted investment money.
`----

http://www.linuxloop.com/news/2008/09/23/the-iphone-is-now-doomed/


Podcaster rejeceted because it duplicates iTunes functionality

,----[ Quote ]
| Today I finally got a reply from Apple about the status of Podcaster.
|
| Apple Rep says: Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it
| duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.
|
| That's right folks, it duplicates the functionality of the desktop version of
| iTunes.
`----

http://almerica.blogspot.com/2008/09/podcaster-rejeceted-because-it.html


As App Store banning continues, iPhone developers protest

,----[ Quote ]
| Developers have already voiced their concern over Apple’s unwritten rules of
| what can and cannot be sold through the App Store, but the situation has
| become even more dire with this most recent round of rejections. It's
| prompted some, such as Fraser Speirs, developer of iPhone Flickr browser
| Exposure, to say that they’ll cease developing for the platform until Apple
| clarifies the rules.
`----

http://www.macworld.com/article/135541/2008/09/appstore_banning.html


Apple Takes the "Tris" Out of iPhone Tetris

,----[ Quote ]
| Now a student named Noah Witherspoon that created an iPhone Tetris knock-off
| called simply "Tris," has been threatened with legal action by The Tetris
| Company. In what he refers to as "petty bullying," the company had Apple
| contact Witherspoon and had him pull the game from the iTunes App Store.
| Apple even told him that they'd take action themselves if he didn't comply.
`----

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/08/26/apple-takes-the-tris-out-of-iphone-tetris


OpenClip, she is dead

,----[ Quote ]
| For those of you who do not remember - or do not care to remember - OpenClip
| was supposed to be an open framework for implementing the Cocoa NSPasteboard
| functionality to the iPhone. While I’m thinking that if Apple wanted to
| implement copy/paste into the iPhone they would have done it already or will
| do it soon, OpenClip was a noble effort to work around the limitations of OS
| X on the iPhone.
`----

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/08/25/openclip-she-is-dead/


Why does Apple Always Seem to Get a Break???

,----[ Quote ]
| Linux. This is the only platform that is not a prison. You are really free
| with Linux. People are congregating at will, building creative new
| structures. Yeah – maybe it isn’t as pretty as the luxury hotel prison that
| is Apple, but at least we are free. In the end it isn’t prison walls that win
| in technology. CompuServe and AOL were beaten by the internet. Centrally
| controlled mainframes were killed by the PC. Over time the best technology
| comes from innovation in unexpected places and while we are occasionally
| wooed by the pretty sounds of “You’ve Got Mail” or the stunning design of a
| new iPhone; we have all seen this movie before and know how it ends.
`----

http://www.linux-foundation.org/weblogs/jzemlin/2008/08/24/why-does-apple-always-seem-to-get-a-break/


Apple goes auntie over slasher comic

,----[ Quote ]
| the application because it breaches their SDK license, serving up content
| that "...in Apple's reasonable judgment may be found objectionable". The
| problem is that this restriction only applies to applications. Dodgy movies,
| episodes of South Park or even The Breakfast Club are perfectly acceptable
| iTunes content.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/26/apple_cca/


Related:

A Linux User's Perspective on the ITunes Store (and DRM in General)

,----[ Quote ]
| What if tomorrow you went to Best Buy or Walmart or Sam Goody and purchased a
| CD? What if, before you left the store, the salesman told you that although
| the CD was in all other respects a standard CD, that you could only play it
| if you owned a Pioneer or Sony stereo? Would that make any sense? Would it
| make you a bit hesitant about buying music from that store again?
|
| Well, if you purchase music or videos from the iTunes Store,
|
| [...]
|
| With content from the iTunes Store, however, users may find themselves a bit
| stuck if they ever want to make the switch to a more open computing platform,
| such as Linux. Because none of the DRM-restricted content from the iTunes
| Store will play on Linux. And it's all because that's how Apple wants it, to
| be honest, and not because of any technical limitation.
`----

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/324936/a_linux_users_perspective_on_the_itunes.html


Apple's latest trick to enforce digital rights

,----[ Quote ]
|
| [...]
|
| With this version of iTunes, users were finding that music
| subjected to the old download-burn-rip would no longer
| load onto their iPods.
`----

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/06/09/10131156.html
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