Actually, if you read the article further, it clarifies that they're onliy
limiting the MP3-creation capabilities of their own included software.
There's no way they can keep you from installing another company's software
to make hi-quality MP3s.
All this means is that people who never download or install software other
than "what comes in the box" are not going to be able to make hi-quality
MP3s. And since I don't think any of the people involved in MP3s so far
uses MS software to do it, I don't think this will really affect the scene
much at all, at least for a few years, and who can tell what the world will
be like a few years from now?
-adam
quoted 107 lines -----Original Message-----
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Static Beats [mailto:static@staticbeats.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 2:04 AM
> To: EggyToast
> Cc: idm@hyperreal.org
> Subject: Re: [idm] mp3 competition
>
>
> Actually, I would have to disagree with you here. The article plainly
> states:
> -----
> "Microsoft, for example, plans to severely limit the quality of music that
> can be recorded as an MP3 file.
>
> Why the eagerness to move consumers away from MP3?
>
> All the new music-software formats include technology known as
> digital-rights management, which can "lock" copyright-protected songs and
> make it harder for consumers to share that music illegally. "
> -----
>
> I would definitely call that limiting. It's one thing for MS to
> employ their
> usual practice of trying to push their own standards, but it's a
> completely
> different thing when they are purposely crippling a particular technology.
> Couple that with the reasoning behind it; digital rights
> management - which
> has so far been unsuccesful (think liquid audio and sony's mp3
> walkmans) and
> you have a company who is not *just* trying to add features and push it's
> own (WMA) technology but a company who is also trying to decide what you
> should and should not be doing with the music on your own computer.
>
> I would add as well that assuming that MP3's are *only* used for illegal
> filesharing is pretty narrowminded. I use it to backup tons of original
> music I create so that I can fit it onto a cd. A 1.5 gig uncompressed wav
> file fits pretty nicely as a 192k mp3 onto a cd.
> I can just as easily convert it back to wav when Im ready to
> splice it up or
> edit it with not much lost in the process which is simply not true for
> neither Real nor WMA. You gotta admit, MP3 is one helluva
> convenient format.
> There are tons of tools out there for encoding, decoding, converting,
> editing, streaming etc. from a myriad of companies whereas there
> are only a
> very small handful of tools available for Real and WMA and mostly from the
> companies themselves (more control).
>
> In addition I have a portable MP3 player as well as an MP3/CD
> hybrid player.
> I don't really think the WMA codec is all that great. It's
> certainly not as
> lossless as MP3 and the Real 8 codec is basically ATRAC which is minidisc
> and although I'm not ready to argue the point in my personal
> tests of three
> different Minidisc recorders I've found that basically you lose
> the highest
> of the highs and the lowest of the lows.
>
> I know this is a rant and I'm not trying to yell conspiracy here, but it
> really does bother me that Microsoft is going to release a new OS
> knowingly
> and purposely limiting a particular technology that is already a worldwide
> standard.
>
>
>
> Shimone/Justes
> http://www.staticbeats.com
> Electronic Music For The Mind
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "EggyToast" <youn0394@umn.edu>
> To: <idm@hyperreal.org>
> Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2001 9:28 PM
> Subject: Re: [idm] mp3 competition
>
>
> > well they're not limiting, they're just not providing. All the article
> > really says is that they're going to push for support of their
> own format
> > using their own products, which makes sense. Their products currently
> just
> > play back mp3's, which they still will. They're actually
> adding features,
> > by allowing windows media player to *make* mp3's, but at 56kbps so they
> > sound pretty bad.
> >
> > And, you can still fully customize a Windows install so it only installs
> > the basics. I just think it's funny that companies think that
> people will
> > always use a standard that's provided by a big company, instead of the
> > standard that's already being used by everyone else. Mac and
> Linux people
> > aren't going to start using WMA any time soon :D
> >
>
>
>
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