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Editorial - Macrimination 
The Latest Battle in the War Being Fought On Your Desktop
By Steve Sobek - Contributing Editor
There's no doubt that Apple's new music service is amazing and much
needed in the industry. It's easy to use, the price is right, the rights
you're granted for the music you download are many times more liberal
than any other service introduced thus far. Except for, of course, the
good old file-sharing system. But as Stevie J. pointed out in his
pseudo-keynote on Monday, "It's stealing."
For those of you who read last week's
column, in which I pleaded with Apple for certain concessions to the
user in the service. I'm happy to report that the service, as
introduced, exceeds the standards I set forth in every way.
But that's not the end of the story. Battle lines have been forming
for some time, and Apple's release of its new music service is actually
just a signal of another skirmish to come in the battle for your
downloads.
It's open standards vs. systems created and owned by single
companies. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is on the short list of companies
who would love to have everyone use their proprietary formats for
downloading video and music. MS's Windows Media standards are still used
online by many music companies for their audio and video. As David
Caulton, group product manager in Microsoft's Windows Digital Media
division, said in an article
on CNET this week: "At this point we see all the momentum is behind
us in this world."
Why? Simple. Microsoft is selling a digital rights management model
(controls on how you can access the content you purchase or rent) that
is not quite as liberal as what Apple introduce this week.
On the other side, you have the standards-based movement, which
wishes to establish an open format that everyone can use, so a monopoly
of one company doesn't end up controlling what we download.
The format Apple is using in its new music service, AAC audio, is an
open standard endorsed by the International Organization for
Standardization. The same organization is behind the new video standard
Apple has embraced: MPEG-4.
Those are the sides, and the battle is being fought on your desktop,
even though you can't see it. Up until the release of Apple's service
this week, Mac users have not had any access to a big online music
service. And until Apple releases the store for Windows users, which
Stevie J. said would happen by the end of the year, Windows users will
not have had access to such a liberal DRM model -- at least a legal one
(See: Napster, Kazaa).
Which way will the battle go? I have no clue. An analyst quoted in
that CNET
article said he thought that there was enough leeriness of Microsfot
among companies that it could end up forcing MS to follow into the
standards-based world or be left behind and allow Windows Media to turn
into the 21st-Century equivalent of the Betamax.
As Technology Business Research analyst Lindy Lesperance told CNET,
"It's common sense that entertainment industries are cautious about
working with Microsoft. ... Now more than ever they look at the
long-term implications of making deals with Microsoft."
But the real verdict will be given by us -- the users. If Apple's
music store ends up being extraordinarily successful, both the Mac and
the Windows versions, then the record company executives will see that
it is possible for everyone to be happy: the users, the distributors,
the artists.
All without a dependence on Microsoft, and that would be an even
bigger victory than Apple making a profit from the service.
Steve Sobek is a journalist and Webmaster of United Mac. Reach him at ssobek@stevesobek.net.
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