October 27, 2003
“Interoperability Isn’t a Popularity Contest”
SethS hits the nail on the head re: interop with DRM. In response, to Microsoft employee Dave Fester’s criticizing Apple’s AAC/Fairplay and suggesting they use WMA, Seth writes:
“Interoperability isn’t a popularity contest. It’s about the answer to this question: What does a prospective implementer have to do in order to make the implementation work? ‘Read the public specification’ is the right answer. Answers involving signing contracts and paying money are the wrong answer. Microsoft and Apple both have media formats with the fatal defect of an attempt to require contractual privity with implementers. (In the free world, that attempt will fail, but that’s little comfort to us in the United States.) Here Fester is suggesting that Microsoft’s media format is obviously preferable because more implementers have signed Microsoft’s license than Apple’s.”
As discussed earlier, even if all the major market players (RIAA, music services, and device manufacturers) used WMA, that still wouldn’t make it a good format. Remember, the ensuing format lock-in is backed up by the DMCA – without it, you could circumvent and reverse engineer for interop.
Filed by Derek Slater at 3:55 pm under General news
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