News Industry Weighs Apple, RealNetworks Feud

According to PCWorld.com, those in the know are musing over Apple and Real's fisticuffs regarding PlayFair and Harmony, and the opinion is that Apple probably don't have a case, and should shut up and reap the benifits of the situation:

The increasingly rancorous feud between Apple and RealNetworks over technology that lets tunes from the RealPlayer Music Store play on the market-leading IPod is refueling controversy about Apple's business model, copyright law, and the impact of incompatible technologies on the music business.

RealNetworks triggered the latest wave of debate last week, announcing Harmony software that will be built into RealPlayer 10.5, now in beta test. Harmony lets users download songs from the RealPlayer Music Store into more than 70 music player devices, including Apple's IPod.

This loosens Apple's proprietary grip on the IPod, which lets users play songs downloaded from the popular iTunes Music Store, MP3 files, and music transferred from CDs--but not songs in formats from vendors whose technology competes with Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) system. These include Microsoft Windows Media Audio, which is supported by a number of partners, and RealNetworks' Helix.

Harmony enables users to play tunes originally formatted with Helix on devices designed to play only WMA or FairPlay songs.

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