Glaser to Jobs: F– Off

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I’m not sure how to feel about the Apple/RealNetworks brouhaha. On the one had, I’m an Apple zealot, and like many Mac geeks I take it personally when someone sticks it to Apple. But on the other hand, all Real is doing is allowing me to play whatever I want on the iPod I own. Although I’m not sure DMCA charges will stick because there really isn’t any anti-circumvention going on (Real is just letting users move music from one protected music format to another protected format), I think that given the way the law is, Apple will be able to find some copyright violations that will stick.

This is a pretty brazen step by Real, and Apple’s reaction has been sharp, saying they are stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod. The question to me is why Rob Glazer put Real into such a hopeless collision course with Apple? And why is Apple so pissed off? As the Motley Fool notes:

Both RealNetworks CEO Rob Glazer and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have admitted that selling songs for below a dollar a pop yields little profit at best. Each company has its own model of generating profits from downloadable music. For Apple, this entails selling the highly lucrative iPods. RealNetworks wants to make money by selling subscriptions to its Rhapsody service, where subscribers pay a flat $9.95 fee a month for unlimited streaming and an additional $0.79 per song purchased.

So it would seem that another iPod-compatible online music store would be in Apple’s interest, helping it sell more of the players. For whatever reason, Apple wants to keep the iPod to itself. Otherwise it would have licensed its Fairplay DRM to Real when it asked. And therein, I think, lies the key to this rowit’s a pissing match. From News.com:

In a private e-mail sent [in April] to Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, Glaser proposed a tactical alliance between the two companies in the digital music business against Microsoft. And oh, by the way, he added, RealNetworks sees very interesting opportunities that may compel it to switch support to Microsoft’s Windows Media audio-video format, if Apple refuses to play ball.

The translation? Glaser to Jobs: Do a deal or else.

After Jobs and his entourage had a good chuckle and a restful weekend, they promptly leaked the contents of the proposal to The New York Times.

The translation? Jobs to Glaser: Buzz off.

Publicly snubbed, and his ego bruised, this is how Glaser fires back, which is reckless for a CEO, I think. Glaser is very litigious, so he seems to be spoiling for a court fight with Apple. Meanwhile, Jobs isn’t low on ego himself and isn’t going to take this lying down. Sadly, this may all be bad PR for Apple if it is cast as the anti-consumer-choice meanie who wants to block access to its monopoly player. This could even turn into something like the IM wars, were each side competes to respectively protect and circumvent.

Whatever happens, though, the lawyers win. Hurrah.

Jul 29, 2004 | Comments

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