:: My Urban Eyes ::
All that I see, and then some.
:: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 ::
Apple Sucks
I tried to think of a way to reword the title, but none of the alternatives quite captured my anger and frustration.
Apple's iPod has DRM, or "Digital Rights Management" software. For those who are less tech-savvy (hi, Mom), that means that you can only get at your music the way Apple (and all of the RIAA companies) want you to get at your music. Once a song is on your iPod, you can't take it off. Even if you do manage to take it off, it still has copy protection all over it, so you can't do anything with it.
Ah, but this is to protect the artists from having their music bounced around the internet for free, right? That's what the companies say. But it infringes on my fair use under copyright law. When you buy a CD, you are allowed to copy it for your own, personal, non-commercial use. So if you have an ancient automobile with a tape deck, you are allowed to copy the CD to tape so you can listen to it in your car. By the same logic, when you buy that same CD you should be able to copy it to your computer, ipod, and etc. for your own personal use. Getting your music onto an iPod is no problem, but taking the music off again is.
Why do I care at this moment, and why am I so mad? I don't have a laptop, so my iPod is my only hard drive while I'm here in Japan. It's been breaking every other week (a whole 'nother source of frustration), so I'm taking it to the Apple store in Shinsaibashi to get it replaced under warranty. No problems so far.
So today I'm trying to get my music off of my iPod and burn it to CD (fair, personal use) and then transfer it to my new iPod. But due to all of these restrictions, I can't. The music that I bought and own the rights to is being held hostage by a three by four by three-quarter inch hunk of metal.
And on top of this, some of the music I have is from indie bands--music that the bands encourage distribution of. I tried to burn a CD of such music last week for a friend--can't do it. Music that truly, legally, wants to be free cannot be.
So, needless to say, I'm frustrated, and never buying an iPod (or other Apple product) again. When I go to the Apple store Friday, if I want any of my music whatsoever, I have to pay them to do a data transfer for me. I'm strongly considering getting by on podcasts my last five weeks here--totally doable, but I'm going to miss falling asleep to my favorite tunes.
I'm in rant mode... I hope my argument makes sense. Take a look at this post from Boing Boing for something a little more coherent... and wish me luck in the Apple store.
Labels: Rants
:: Kazen @ Always Doing 8:07 PM [+] ::
:: ... 4 comments
Comments:
Just for reference:
MACINTOSH
Most
Applications
Crash
If
Not
The
Operating
System
Hangs
I hate apple :)
MACINTOSH
Most
Applications
Crash
If
Not
The
Operating
System
Hangs
I hate apple :)
# posted by 
: 12:46 PM
: 12:46 PM
hey - we were talking about comedy central clips the other night - colbert's correspondance dinner speech is at www.poetv.com if you haven't seen it yet
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