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Re: Apple Computer changes its name

bieling@terra.es wrote:

Paul Schlyter wrote:



- the mp3 player's memory appearing just as a plain disk drive, with all
 your mp3 files readily accessible  (they're there on your iPod too, true,
 although with the 'hidden' bit set, and also obfuscated behind obscure
 file names).



The first thing you see inside an iPod's case is "don't steal music".


..accompanied by the embossed signatures of Apple's legal staff.  ;-)


Apple sells music in the iTunes music store, and they try to make their
providers happy (the copyright owners) by making it as hard as possible
to steal music. The interface to transfer music in/out of the iPod is
meant to be iTunes, just for this reason. iTunes takes care as much as
possible of avoiding illegal copying of music between different ipods.

All the ipods since the first one can be used as an storage device, and
this has not been true for many of the other mp3 players. But making
the music files visible won't help Apple very much in their position
in-between the final user and their music providers. The users get a
nice handy useful user interface, and the other party gets their much
wanted piracy prevention measures. If I was a singer, I'd probably like
that.


More likely if you were a record company executive.

Musicians rarely make money from record sales, since most only receive
a percentage of profits *after all expenses* which includes bloated
"marketing expenses".  Most musicians make their money from concerts.

Of course, the few blockbuster albums benefit everyone in the food
chain.

The plain fact is that the marketing and distribution role that
recording companies serve has been rendered largely redundant, but
they (of course) fight tooth and nail to retain their now obsolescent
position.  I doubt that many customers would agree that the lion's
share of every dollar they spend on recorded music should continue to
go to the recording company, not the artist.

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

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