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The Wired magazine blog talks about Microsoft patenting a technique for preventing and reversing music piracy at the hardware level.

“Microsoft and Apple are thinking along the same lines when it comes to enabling users to copy music between their wireless devices.

Certain cellphones already allow you to do this via Bluetooth file transfer, but Microsoft’s patented idea would take the concept further, by allowing users to trade MP3s that may have come from file sharing networks to one another, expiring the song on the recipient’s device after three plays, unless the user pays Microsoft a fee in order to continue to listen to the track, with a percentage going to the person who provided the song. As the abstract puts it, “even [the] resale of pirated media content [can] benefit… the copyright holder.”"

Here’s an excerpt from the patent application:

“Systems and methods are described for an off-line economy for digital media. In one implementation, exemplary media devices of buyer and seller participate in the off-line economy by performing secure off-line transfers of digital media content between themselves. The media devices store proof of the off-line sales transactions, so that a percentage of the sale price can be applied to a copyright owner and a percentage of the sale price can be applied to the seller as an incentive. Even resale of pirated media content benefits the copyright holder. The off-line economy opens an effective and inexpensive distribution channel for copyright holders and allows buyers to obtain media content anywhere, at any time, from any participant in the off-line economy without connecting to the Internet. The off-line economy allows copyright holders and media sellers to optimize pricing by market probing.”

Where does Apple get off? After huge praise and attention for the launch of its iPhone last week a bunch of Aussie developers have developed a iPhone skin for Windows Mobile 5. Praise indeed.

How does Apple react? It writes heavy handed legal letters to the websites hoisting the skins to pull them down, then it writes letters to journos telling them they are not permitted to report the story.

What is this, North Korea? You’d think that with the unstoppable wave of UGC, SN, social media and citizen journos Apple would show a little more wisdom. All this will serve to do is build resentment towards Apple, whereas, had it been handled differently it could have served their PR machine so well.

It reminds me of the YouTube Cicarelli videos…

iPhone skin story

News item at The Inquirer is here

Here is the ‘offending’ forum (including the paraphrased legal letter)

Some discussion on Paul OBrien’s personal blog

Here’s a great spoof on the official letter from one forum reader….

Dear MoDaCo users

It has come to the attention of iApple iComputer iInc. that there have been discussions on this forum regarding the new Apple iPhone.

We would like to remind you that any discussion about this is strictly forbidden, and we will be taking legal action and seizing all your properties.

Any sentences and/or posts regarding this product are strictly the property of iApple iComputer iInc., and we DEMAND that you immediately remove the entire MoDaCo site and replace it with a redirection to the Apple store.

In addition, any consuming of an apple or apple-like fruit while reading this forum will be considered an illegal act. You are not to place apple peels or ’skins’ anywhere near your Windows devices.

thankyou