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Yahoo News and Duncan Martell get it wrong...really wrong

Yes, it's another "OH NOES, TEH EVUL DRM" article. Normally I tend to ignore such things. However, this one just reeks with stupid errors that show the author has so little knowledge of the subject that I do believe he used a deck of Tarot cards and an old chicken liver as his fact check.

This paragraph:

But Apple's FairPlay digital rights management, or DRM, software prevents you from listening to those purchased songs on a music player from Dell Inc., Creative, Sony, or others. The same thing goes for songs you've imported to your computer from CDs you already own.

Really Duncan? So, I really wasn't ripping un-DRM'd MP3s off of my CDs in iTunes that play just fine in Windows Media Player? Oh wait, I was. See, Duncan didn't bother to take a small, but critical step called learning the program before you talk about it, aka "Don't Be Dumb". Because if he had, he would have realized that in fact, you can do MP3 rips in iTunes, then play them on any portable music player that handles MP3s, which would be damned near all of them. But then the alarm level on the article drops, and it's not so much fun to read anymore.

Of course, any time you have someone quoting Rob Enderle, you just know the stupid level is going to be off the hook. Another gem:

Beyond just having songs you bought from iTunes "trapped" on the iPod and in iTunes, it's also not a snap to move songs from an iPod - whether you bought them or initially pulled them off a CD - back up to a computer. While it's possible to do so, Apple doesn't make it easy, right off the bat, because it's trying to discourage piracy.

"They do it to lock you in," Enderle said, noting an example of if you spent $500 on buying songs from iTunes. "You now have a $500 switching cost to pull out of iTunes.

Um...Rob...again, you're...what's the word...oh yes, wrong, with a light dash of ignorance. Yes, it's tedious to de-DRM iTMS songs, but it's not impossible, nor is it trapped. To play a little bit with an old iTunes slogan:

Burn, Rip, Mix.

Burn your iTMS songs to Audio CD. Ohhh, magic! The DRM is GONE! Rip them back in some other application, as MP3, WMA, OGG, or whatever format floats your boat. Dump them into a player that's not an iPod. Wow...I have just told you how to not spend $500 to get your stuff out of iTunes. Hey, that makes me smarter than Rob Enderle. Oh wait, being smarter than Rob Enderle is about as hard as running faster than a fish.

On the "It's hard to move stuff from an iPod" schtick? Duncan, there's a magical place called "Versiontracker" where, for free, you can download more programs than you think possible that turn this "hard" task into point and click. You can point and click, right? Okay, just checking.

So while the old saw about "Just because it's on the Internet doesn't make it true" is a good thing to remember, here's a corollary: "If they're quoting Rob Enderle, other than to mock him, the article and the quotes are full of crap."

Just say no to Enderle and the people who think he's right. You'll be glad you did.

Technorati Tags: iPod, iTunes, Fairplay, Rob Enderle - Idiot, Technology, TEH STOOPUD

Categories: Other, Technology

Posted by John C. Welch at 09:05 | Permalink

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Okay, so I try to not do this here at least, but sometimes an article has just so many astounding errors that I have to bring them out, so that somewhere in the great Google database, there's at least one voice calling \"Bullshit!\"\n\nRead this article from Yahoo News\n\nYes, it's another \"OH NOES, TEH EVUL DRM\" article. Normally I tend to ignore such things. However, this one just reeks with stupid errors that show the author has so little knowledge of the subject that I do believe he used a deck of Tarot cards and an old chicken liver as his fact check.\n\nThis paragraph:\n\nBut Apple's FairPlay digital rights management, or DRM, software prevents you from listening to those purchased songs on a music player from Dell Inc., Creative, Sony, or others. The same thing goes for songs you've imported to your computer from CDs you already own.\n\nReally Duncan? So, I really wasn't ripping un-DRM'd MP3s off of my CDs in iTunes that play just fine in Windows Media Player? Oh wait, I was. See, Duncan didn't bother to take a small, but critical step called learning the program before you talk about it, aka \"Don't Be Dumb\". Because if he had, he would have realized that in fact, you can do MP3 rips in iTunes, then play them on any portable music player that handles MP3s, which would be damned near all of them. But then the alarm level on the article drops, and it's not so much fun to read anymore.\n\nOf course, any time you have someone quoting Rob Enderle, you just know the stupid level is going to be off the hook. Another gem:\n\nBeyond just having songs you bought from iTunes \"trapped\" on the iPod and in iTunes, it's also not a snap to move songs from an iPod - whether you bought them or initially pulled them off a CD - back up to a computer. While it's possible to do so, Apple doesn't make it easy, right off the bat, because it's trying to discourage piracy.\n\n\"They do it to lock you in,\" Enderle said, noting an example of if you spent \$500 on buying songs from iTunes. \"You now have a \$500 switching cost to pull out of iTunes.\n\nUm...Rob...again, you're...what's the word...oh yes, wrong, with a light dash of ignorance. Yes, it's tedious to de-DRM iTMS songs, but it's not impossible, nor is it trapped. To play a little bit with an old iTunes slogan:\n\nBurn, Rip, Mix.\n\nBurn your iTMS songs to Audio CD. Ohhh, magic! The DRM is GONE! Rip them back in some other application, as MP3, WMA, OGG, or whatever format floats your boat. Dump them into a player that's not an iPod. Wow...I have just told you how to not spend \$500 to get your stuff out of iTunes. Hey, that makes me smarter than Rob Enderle. Oh wait, being smarter than Rob Enderle is about as hard as running faster than a fish.\n\nOn the \"It's hard to move stuff from an iPod\" schtick? Duncan, there's a magical place called \"Versiontracker\" where, for free, you can download more programs than you think possible that turn this \"hard\" task into point and click. You can point and click, right? Okay, just checking.\n\nSo while the old saw about \"Just because it's on the Internet doesn't make it true\" is a good thing to remember, here's a corollary: \"If they're quoting Rob Enderle, other than to mock him, the article and the quotes are full of crap.\" \n\nJust say no to Enderle and the people who think he's right. You'll be glad you did.\n\n

Technorati Tags: iPod, iTunes, Fairplay, Rob Enderle - Idiot, Technology, TEH STOOPUD