Real have hacked Apple's Fairplay digital rights management technology, as used to lock songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store into iTunes player and iPod hardware. They cite "freedom of choice" as their motivation—but are they willing to open up their own proprietary media formats? It doesn't look like it...
From: "Real Customer Support" <rnmusic@mailca.custhelp.com>
Date: 21 August 2004 09:32:02 BST
To:
Subject: [Incident: 040820-001332]
Reply-To: "Real Customer Support" <rnmusic@mailca.custhelp.com>Response (Shashidhar J)
08/21/2004 01:32 AM
Thank you for contacting RealNetworks Technical Support.
As I understand from reading your e-mail, you would like to play RealAudio and RealVideo files using a different media player.
Kindly note that, RealAudio and RealVideo files are proprietory of RealNetworks and can be played only using RealPlayer. These files cannot be played in any other applications.
We are sorry for the inconvenience caused. Please let me know if you need further assistance.
Regards,
Shashidhar
B2K Corp.
RealNetworks Authorized Support ProviderCustomer (Bruce McKenzie)
08/20/2004 11:53 AM
I support freedom of choice.
Can you tell me what software I can use on Mac OS X to play RealAudio and RealVideo files, without installing RealPlayer? I would like to use QuickTime: if this isn't possible, could you explain why?
Thanks, Bruce
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