On 1/5/07, Daniel R. Tobias <dan(a)tobias.name> wrote:
On 4 Jan 2007 at 22:57, Stan Shebs
<stanshebs(a)earthlink.net> wrote:
On music players, the high-order bit is the deal
with record companies
that allows for music to be sold online in vast quantities; Apple isn't
going to jeopardize that just to placate the 43 techies who really want
ogg support. For instance, an ogg implementation that was able to defeat
the DRM would trash Apple's entire music business. I don't have any
inside knowledge though, so for all we know they may announce ogg
support at Macworld in a couple weeks.
That explanation seems kind of bogus... MP3, while it's "unfree" in
the sense of having patent encumbrances, is free of DRM, and can be
used to exchange unprotected music (including pirated music). Apple
still doesn't mind supporting it. Adding Ogg support wouldn't
provide any opportunity to get around DRM that isn't already there.
Never attribute to malice what can be explained by laziness... The
demand for .ogg support isn't there, therefore it's not high on the
priority list. That said, there are a multitude of ways to change an
.ogg file to an .mp3 relatively quickly and painlessly. Providing the
most open format possible on Wikipedia allows the end user more
options for what to do with it, and is in the end working towards the
goals of the project.
-david