DRM Wars - Microsoft and Apple at it Again
April 6th, 2007 |
I remember long ago when Microsoft and Apple were fiercely fighting over who would control the PC Market. Well I think we all know who won that battle. What most people don’t know is there’s a new battle. This one is over movies and music. What’s that you say? Movies and Music, I thought Microsoft and Apple were computer companies?
They are. But somewhere along the way Apple changed its name from “Apple Computer” to just “Apple”. I’m sure it’s because of their widely successful Ipod. You see both companies know it makes a lot of sense to download movies and music off the Internet. Why drive your car to a store and buy a clunky CD?
But there’s a problem. The people who make the movies and music don’t want it copied all over the web. Both Microsoft and Apple came up with an answer called DRM (Digital Rights Management). The music and movie companies bought into it so now you and I can buy our music and movies online.
There’s a hidden catch most people don’t know about. Something sneaky and underhanded that both Microsoft and Apple have done. Can you guess what it is?
I recently bought an audio book of The Magic of Thinking Big. If you’ve never read this book, buy the audio version. It’s something you’ll listen to every few months for the rest of your life. I can’t say enough good things about this book (and the audio). But, I’m getting off track. Back to our problem. It turns out this audio book I bought is protected with Microsoft’s DRM. I’m fine with this. I understand they don’t want the audio-book copied and posted on a website somewhere. But I was surprised to find out that my audio book wouldn’t play on my Ipod. It will only play on Microsoft’s Media Player. I have to listen to it on my computer, not in my car like I wanted to. Clearly Microsoft is bullying me into ditching the Ipod and buying their competitor called the “zune”. But I really don’t want a Zune. I like my Ipod. Do you think Apple is any better? Their Itunes music won’t play on anything but an Ipod. What a mess.
“I paid for this”, I thought to myself. “I should be able to play it on anything I want”. The hacker in me came out I scoured the Internet looking for a “DRM Remover”. By taking the DRM out I could copy the file to my Ipod. If you’re thinking of doing this, I’ll save you a ton of work. Don’t waste your time. I spent countless hours trying software programs that claimed to do this. None of them worked.
But there is a way….
Yes, there is an obvious and easy way to move the audio book over to an Ipod. Simply burn the audio book to a music CD. Eject it. Then put it back into your computer. Import the audio CD into Itunes and copy it to your Ipod.
It seems downright silly that this works and you can’t just move the audio file to your Ipod. But all this technology is brand new. Digital Music and Movies are being pioneered right now. It’s an exciting time. But in the meantime we have to put up ridiculous things like DRM.
