Apple, Real, Microsoft blamed for MP3 piracy.!

Mikhail · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 8:51 am

Tech.co.uk News wrote:

Apple , Microsoft , Real Networks and Adobe have been slapped with a cease and desist order by two US companies. The big four all make products that infringe digital copyright, Media Rights Technologies (MRT) and BlueBeat say. This is in contravention of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"Together these four companies are responsible for 98 per cent of the media players in the marketplace," MRT says. "CNN, NPR, Clear Channel, MySpace, Yahoo and YouTube all use these infringing devices to distribute copyrighted works. We will hold the responsible parties accountable. The time of suing John Doe is over."

The technologies at fault include Microsoft Windows Vista, Adobe Flash Player, Real Player, the Apple iPod and iTunes. MRT CEO Hank Risan says Vista is particularly problematic:

"There are now over 250 different brands of Stream Rippers which support Vista.

"Microsoft has even built into the Vista OS a native ripper, called Sound Recorder, which will deaggregate performance-based streams of unlimited duration and convert them into unprotected WMA downloads, easily uploaded on to Zune players.

"This year, Microsoft's Q1 profit surged 65 per cent to $4.93 billion, boosted by sales of Vista, while the Recording Industry's profits have plummeted."
Apple Fairplay: not so fair

Risan also points the finger at Apple and music site Pandora:

"At the iTunes store, Fairplay protection can be easily stripped away, creating unprotected MP3s with the click of a Stream Ripper 'record' button. At Pandora, every one of their millions of user-created playlists can be copied and deaggregated by Stream Rippers. The resulting royalty-free files from these examples are being transferred to an iPod or any other MP3 player."

Of course both Media Rights Technologies and BlueBeat have a vested interest in issuing the cease and desist order. MRT creates and licences content management solutions for digital media. BlueBeat is a US internet radio station, which just so happens to carry protected audio content and is owned by MRT.

WOW just wow...I never saw that coming.

Adbot · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 8:51 am

CreepyPirate · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 11:20 am

Lll, good luck stopping them.

Pathetic, they rip people off with there over priced CDs and ***** it out on marketing and expect people to pay. When they start selling albums and singles at reasonable prices i'll stop "stealing" the songs. Telling those 3 to stop wont stop it.

(p.s i wont really buy them, ever haha)

Mikhail · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 11:24 am

Well yeah they are overpriced...

Anubis · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 11:51 am

If there's a free way to get things, people are going to do it. *shrugs*

Mushroom Queen · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 12:09 pm

You know what, people would stop pirating music if the RIAA realised, "Hey! Maybe we should charge people a monthly/annual fee for downloading an unlimited amount of music as long as they pay". Because, honestly, stealing music is too easy to do.

Back on topic though, I don't see why they're going after Apple/Real/Microsoft over this. I guess they couldn't make enough money off the settlement fees that the families of teenage boys were paying.

MattVortex · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 1:04 pm

It's not the RIAA going after Apple, Microsoft and Real this time. It's some company who have made a DRM system that blocks out the ability to record it by capturing audio. Exactly how it works I dont know. At the moment, DRM systems can be circumvented by capturing the audio and putting that into an mp3.

Anyway, I hate DRM.

If you buy a CD, you can listen to it. You can copy it. You can put it on your computer. You can lend it to a friend who can put it on their computer. Why should any music you buy off the internet be any different? If you legally buy something, you should be allowed to do anything you like with it.

As for piracy, not only do I not condemn it, in some ways I support it. If I were an artist, and people were pirating my music, I would be incredibly happy, because it proves people are interested in my music and like it. With more interest, more people will actually buy the music, and so I'd get more money.

DRM is a stupid idea anyway. Think about it - the iTunes store is selling non-DRM music for $1.29 or 99p, and DRM music for $0.99 or 79p. DRM costs money, so the profit margins on the non-DRM music are a lot bigger.

Adbot · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 1:04 pm

xOhYax · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 4:55 pm

They shouldnt care, celebs are already rich as #### they dont need MORE money, oh wow they dont get that 70th car, wooo.... whatever, greedy *****

Chris · **Posted:** May 12th, 2007, 7:11 pm

xOhYax wrote:

They shouldnt care, celebs are already rich as #### they dont need MORE money, oh wow they dont get that 70th car, wooo.... whatever, greedy *****

In a way, I can agree with you. Famous singers and bands certainly do not need to worry about their financial situation. They make enough money as it is, and whining about music piracy is somewhat showing a little greediness. Not saying that pirating music is good, it will always be done. And here they are blaming Microsoft, Apple, and Real for piracy. Yet why aren't they condemning, say, Gnutella for LimeWire? I'm pretty sure there is plenty of piracy going on there. You can get plenty of MP3s in a matter of minutes.
I would have to say they are going after those companies just because of how they are big corporations. From the looks of it, they are pointing out flaws in the programs that allow the piracy, then accusing them of supporting piracy.

Oh well, I know this. Illegal music downloading will never cease to exist. People will much rather get it for free than pay it, which is how a lot of attitudes in this world are.

Something my friend just said to me a few minutes ago: "If I had to pay for all the music I just downloaded, I'd be able to take away the national debt."