in my experience
Apple on DRM: mum's the word.
October 2, 2002 10:33 AM
As Dan Gilmore notes, Apple hasn't made a commitment to Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology in their hardware (yet?). Microsoft has been conspicuously pushing DRM as an 'innovation' that consumers should love, but it's not the consumer that DRM wants to help out. Apple has a history of being user and customer centric, and a non-DRM play might not last.
October 2, 2002 10:33 AM
As Dan Gilmore notes, Apple hasn't made a commitment to Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology in their hardware (yet?). Microsoft has been conspicuously pushing DRM as an 'innovation' that consumers should love, but it's not the consumer that DRM wants to help out. Apple has a history of being user and customer centric, and a non-DRM play might not last.
Congress has been consistently pushing to pass laws making built-in DRM technology the law (eg, the DMCA and SSSCA), and if that happens, and Apple needs to build DRM into OSX, then they will have to pay Microsoft. Why? Because MSFT owns patents for DRM in operating systems (patent number 6,330,670).
The part of the SSSCA that scares me is this...
It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies that adhere to the security systems standards adopted under sectionI haven't taken a very close look at SSSCA2 yet, but it contains the same language I just cited. There are implications for the Linux world here too folks.