The RIAA and NAB have proposed a new bill that would force all smartphones, MP3 players and tablets to include an FM radio in the future.
Gary Shapiro, the president of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), had some harsh words for the proposal, as it would affect a large number of devices built by CEA members.
“Rather than adapt to the digital marketplace, NAB and RIAA act like buggy-whip industries that refuse to innovate and seek to impose penalties on those that do,” Shapiro added, via Ars.
For example, a product like the iPod Shuffle would be impossible to create, as the body would need to be made larger, and more controls would be needed to be able to tune stations.
The NAB is willing to cave into paying $100 million a year to the RIAA in royalties (under the Performance Rights Act), if the FM radios are implemented.
Result for: ipod shuffle
Prosecutors in Michigan have filed fraud charges against an iPod repairman who allegedly received over 9000 replacement iPod Shuffle devices by entering serial numbers into Apple’s online web site. He then flipped the devices for full profit.
The man, Nicholas Woodhams, age 23, sold mostly all of the stolen iPods for $49 USD each, making over $400,000 USD profit.
“We’ve been cooperating with the government and are in the process of negotiating a resolution,” said Woodhams’ lawyer, Randall Levine. “He is one of those guys who is computer-savvy. This is a very bright man who did not fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation.”
The government is currently looking to seize all of Woodhams’ assets, including two cars, a motorcycle, seven Mac computers and an undisclosed amount of cash, supposedly in the hundreds of thousands.
Being an independent iPod repairman, Woodhams had full knowledge that he could get free replacements if Shuffle devices were having problems.
“Through trial and error, the defendant determined that he could guess valid, warrantied serial numbers and enter them into Apple’s Web site for ‘replacement’ units without ever in fact purchasing or possessing the ‘original’ units,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler added.
Result for: ipod shuffle
Despite their recent action to remove DRM from the music they sell through iTunes, Apple continues to add more DRM to their hardware, says the EFF, with the latest example being the new iPod Shuffle.
For the new model, Apple has moved the volume and control buttons to the headphones themselves, leaving nothing on the actual hardware unit.
According to the EFF, any third-party headphone maker will not have an easy task making headphones for the Shuffle however as they will need to use an “Apple authentication chip” for the headphones to even work with the device.
Headphone makers could, normally, reverse engineer the interface but the chip makes it illegal to do so and any company found doing it will have the DMCA thrown at them.
A review at iLounge summarizes the DRM:
“This is, in short, a nightmare scenario for long-time iPod fans: are we entering a world in which Apple controls and taxes literally every piece of the iPod purchase from headphones to chargers, jacking up their prices, forcing customers to re-purchase things they already own, while making only marginal improvements in their functionality? It’s a shame, and one that consumers should feel empowered to fight.”
