you know, the more i think about it, the more i realize that apple has actually snuck a video subscription service under our noses and no one has even blinked. namely, while you can always shunt the videos onto offline media for "backup" purposes, you can't burn it to DRM-free universal playback format. in other words, unless i am mistaken, you must ALWAYS have an authoriz-able computer with iTunes installed to access your purchased videos. while i am sure that apple and quicktime/itunes will be around for many years to come, will they continue on indefinitely?

apple really needs to find a way to allow either idvd or imovie to burn videos to common playback media like their itunes music tracks can be burned to regular ol' cd's. mind you, i've already purchased some videos knowing this issue full-well, and i'll accept the loss of a few bucks if it comes to that, but i just can't shake this nagging feeling that i'm not getting true "ownership."

edit: by the way, before someone nails me too bad, at least this "subscription" service is pretty cheap. $2 for the life of iTunes/Apple. pretty good deal.

When you buy a DVD, you'll ALWAYS need to have a DVD Player to watch the movie. What if DVD's go the way of the Laserdisc? You still have ownership of your dvd.

Ok, maybe that's a bad example since you'll still have your existing dvd player to use.... hmmmm..... I guess if Apple goes out of business you'd still be able to play the music on the already authorized machine, you just wouldn't be able to authorize NEW machines. And maybe Apple would provide a way for you to remove the DRM on the music you've bought.

Maybe we'll find out if Apple pulls out of France. What will all the existing French customers do?

You seem to have a serious personal issues with indy music. More and more "mainstream" artists are signing up with the Podsafe Music Network, and there is a surprising amount of really high quality music coming out, without the record companies being involved. Things are happening, and the Podsafe Music Network is going places.

Will Britney Spears sign up with the Podsafe Music Network tomorrow? No, she won't. But you can buy her DRM-free from allofmp3.com.

I'd like to end this post by saying I have absolutely no problem paying for music or other material. In fact, so far I have spent about $1000 on DRM-encombered music and audiobooks. But it is really starting to piss me off: suddenly I can't authenticate more computers, or it won't play on my Nokia phone (even though the phone supports AAC files), it won't let me burn an MP3 CD for my car, I can't listen to an audiobook until the download completes, and so on. It's just a gigantic pain in the butt. DRM fucking sucks ass (the kindest way I can put it, forgive my French).