> Except for Sony, every other media player disregarded DRM.
The Sandisk Sansa Fuze[1] had the bizarre "slot radio". http://gizmodo.com/5126743/how-sandisks-slotradio-turned-a-g...
Re:Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)
by Intermernet on Monday September 15, 2014 @07:22AM
(#8318207)
Wow, thanks for the link. I didn't know about that at all...
Surprising that it's from 2009. I thought that the big players had worked out the public's opinion by then, but it may be that that product was in development during the DRM battles and Sandisk had to either release it, or scrap the product.
Re:Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)
by ecopoesis on Monday September 15, 2014 @07:47AM
(#8318273)
That's untrue. Every audio ecosystem, be it iTunes, Zune, Rhapsody, whatever had DRM. It was a requirement from the record labels.
Re:Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)
by Intermernet on Monday September 15, 2014 @08:18AM
(#8318348)
Not true at all if you bought a device that wasn't made by the big players (the majority of early media players). They had no DRM, and provided uniform, simple USB removable media access to the media on the device.
The record labels only stepped in when your quoted companies/brands entered the fray.
I think we're talking at cross-purposes about what we mean by 'No DRM'. The devices you're talking about would only run DRM free MP3s so in that respect they 'had no DRM', but they would be incapable of running DRM'd muic e.g. copied from a Zune or iPod.
But then Zunes and iPods could also always run DRM free MP3s copied from other sources as well, so I'm not sure what you think the difference was, or what advantage you think these independent players had with respect to DRM.
Except for Sony, every other media player disregarded DRM. You may not have noticed this if you only had an iPod. The fact that they joined the ranks of their competitors in this regard should not be seen as a positive, it should only be seen as PR.