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Wed, Jan 07, 2009 - 01:07 PM EST  —  AAPL: 92.15 (-0.87, -0.94%)  |  NASDAQ: 1613.83 (-38.55, -2.33%)

CNET publishes fake Apple fanboy’s lament from DRM-lovin’ Macrovision evangelist
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 10:03 AM EST

Richard Bullwinkle is Macrovision's Chief Evangelist. You remember Macrovision, right? If not, allow us to refresh your memory:

Back in February, Macrovision — In Love With DRM Since 1983 — posted a response from CEO Fred Amoroso to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' open letter calling for DRM-free music which was subsequently translated from Assholian into English by Daring Fireball's John Gruber. Some bits:

• We’ve been helping and encouraging the entertainment industry to annoy its paying customers for more than 20 years.
• Remember those squiggly lines when you tried copying a commercial VHS tape? You can thank us for that.
• We recognize that if getting rid of DRM works for the music industry, it’s going to open the eyes of executives in other fields, and it could unravel Macrovision’s entire business.
• I have, to date, succeeded in convincing the entertainment industry that DRM can stop piracy.
• The solution is more DRM. DRM everywhere.
• Without DRM we don’t have control over what people can do with their media.


Read Gruber's full translation - highly recommended - here.

Anyway, CNET (who else?) has published a piece by Macrovision's Chief Evangelist, Richard Bullwinkle, in which he disingenuously sets himself up as "an Apple fanboy."

Bullwinkle, conniving corporate mouthpiece that he is, then proceeds to excrete nuggets such as, "If I step outside my fanboy shoes, perhaps I would discover [that} I could buy and own songs and videos that I could use on any player...not just an iPod. I could have an open environment to share my media content across my other entertainment devices instead of a closed environment that locks all my content in one brand."

MacDailyNews Take: Set yourself up as an "Apple fanboy" in order to push your corporate agenda with incorrect and/or misleading propaganda. Lovely. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too! The fact is that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has called for an end to music DRM and this is BAD for Macrovision which is obviously a place that gives Microsoft a serious run for its money when it comes to lack of business (and just plain human) ethics. Bullwinkle, who's not fooling anybody, seems like just the type who'd take that as a compliment. Nasty piece of work. How some of these scumbags sleep at night is beyond us. Apple, of course, sells DRM-free music from EMI and is reportedly continuing to work to convince the other music cartels to allow them to do the same with their music catalogs. Such music can be played on any player that supports the successor to MP3, the superior "MPEG-4 Audio," also known as AAC. Apple's iPod does not require use of the iTunes Store. Apple's iTunes Store does not require use of an iPod. Apple supports both Mac users and Windows PC sufferers. Microsoft, for example, does no such thing. Apple's FairPlay DRM, when required by the music cartels, supports more users than Microsoft's now-defunct PlaysForSure and bound-for-defunctness Zune thing, both of which were/are Windows-only. Zune and PlaysForSure were even incompatible with each other!

Bullwinkle, who, with one article, now makes us picture a weasel instead of a cartoon moose, continues his indefensible, slimy, and gross douchebaggery via CNET (of course) in his full piece, Think Before You Click™, here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Since_IIci" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: Yuck. Does anyone have any Pepto?

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Dec 19, 07 - 10:10 am Comment from: Ampar

"How some of these scumbags sleep at night is beyond us."

On their stomachs?

Dec 19, 07 - 10:12 am Comment from: Ampar

Evangelist Richard Bullwinkle = Whacking, insultable driveller.

Dec 19, 07 - 10:13 am Comment from: John C. Randolph

"Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a load of unmitigated bullshit out of my hat!"

"Again? That trick never works!"

"This time, for sure!"

-jcr

Dec 19, 07 - 10:24 am Comment from: M.X.N.T.4.1

Where is this open digital music and video? Show me and I'll use that and play it on my iPod - it's open after all.

Dec 19, 07 - 10:25 am Comment from: pastrychef

Brilliant article! Highly recommended reading!

Dec 19, 07 - 10:28 am Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

Where are Boris and Natasha when you need them?

Dec 19, 07 - 10:30 am Comment from: ron

Tell all the CNET editors what you think.

http://www.cnet.com/4520-13403_1-6722502-2.html?tag=byline

Dec 19, 07 - 10:31 am Comment from: Zune Tang®

This guy is right on the mark! Thank you Bullwinkle for having the courage to tell the truth—and he's an Apple fanboy!

Don't let Apple control your media and player choices! Let DRM open up all kinds of possibilities for your content and player choices. My favorite choices are Microsoft's Janus DRM and Microsoft's Zune. The new Zunes are really great. I'm going to buy one. It's much better than those I-PODs.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Dec 19, 07 - 10:35 am Comment from: Spark

Anyone who starts off describing themselves as an Apple Fanboy is obviously an Apple-hater. That's is the most transparent straw-man I think I've ever seen.

Dec 19, 07 - 10:42 am Comment from: Ampar

"Let DRM open up all kinds of possibilities for your content and player choices."

Bravo! That is the funniest thing I have read today! Thanks, I needed that.

Dec 19, 07 - 10:44 am Comment from: silverwarloc

douchebaggery

....Brilliant!!!!

Dec 19, 07 - 11:31 am Comment from: Zuno the Clown

Bingo, Spark!
If somebody writes that they're an Apple "fanboy," they're not.

Frickin MS astroturfers!

Dec 19, 07 - 11:45 am Comment from: Synthmeister

Bullwinkle? BULLWINKLE? I actually thot MDN was making this up and making fun of Macrovision until I got half way thru the article and realized that was the guy's real name.

I'm sorry, but anyone with the name Bullwinkle should simply not be allowed to have the title "Chief Evangelist." in any company except Disney or Hanna-Barbera. Was the personnel committee on vacation that week? Was the PR department on drugs?

Dec 19, 07 - 12:06 pm Comment from: @ZTang

You are completely correct, jANUS and zune go together, a match made in heaven!

Dec 19, 07 - 12:07 pm Comment from: clyde

How do these douchebags sleep at night? Very uncomfortably. Lying on all of those lumpy bags of cash and gold krugerrands would probably misalign your spinal column. Poor guy, he probably has to wake up his live in masseur first thing in the morning, and then jump in his hot tub...(sniff)...

Dec 19, 07 - 12:07 pm Comment from: Cubert

Richard Bullwinkle? Is this Rocky's sadistic evil twin brother who likes to torture talking squirrels?

Dec 19, 07 - 12:22 pm Comment from: Rocky

"Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Nothing up my sleeve."

Or is there..

Go back to Frostbite falls.

Dec 19, 07 - 12:30 pm Comment from: cynical observer

DRM is one of those things... if you piss your customers off enough, they'll eventually go elsewhere.

Steve gets it, why don't the other guys?

MW: light.

Wow. I'm not making it up. I'm putting a tin-foil hat on right now, just in case MDN is tapping into my mind. Scary stuff!

Dec 19, 07 - 12:31 pm Comment from: Not Bill

Zune Tang says "I am going to buy one." Even Zune Tang is waiting for M$ to have to give their "new" catch up Zunes away.

My freedom. Apple's passion.

Dec 19, 07 - 01:36 pm Comment from: Christopher Dow

I know Richard Bullwinkle. Richard Bullwinkle is a friend of mine. He's even a neighbor of mine. While I (and anyone else who knows & loves him) freely admit he's a douchebag, I will say that he coveted my Apple products for years until he switched. He's a true believer who honestly wants all his media to play on his beautiful Apple products.

C

Dec 19, 07 - 01:44 pm Comment from: Reality Check

MacDaily "News", stop suckin' Jobs' dick, Mactard asswipes.

Dec 19, 07 - 01:53 pm Comment from: Gill Bates and Beve Stallmer

Richard Bullshitter:

"If I step outside my fanboy shoes, perhaps I would discover [that] I could buy and own songs and videos that I could use on any player...not just an iPod."

Lying tool, that Bullshitter.

My primary machine is a G4 Mac Mini, but I've got a laptop that dual boots XP and Ubuntu. Now, I've got iTunes Plus tracks that I've played on my laptop not only under Ubuntu Gusty Gibbon but also running under XP in Foobar2000.

They would also play on a Zune if I were stupid enough to buy one.

Lying tool, that Bullshitter. I know he's lying, because I've done it.

I can also play not only iTunes Plus downloads but my downloads that I've bought from other companies that don't use DRM -- and, of course, my own rips.

AAC is an open spec. Apple don't need to rely on lock-in like Microsoft and Macromedia, because they compete in an open market with decent products attractively presented. IOW, they're a legitimate business - not lying scumbags.

Dec 19, 07 - 01:57 pm Comment from: Dan Powell

Isn't it funny how all of these unimaginitive Windows lovers have latched onto Fake Steve Jobs' blog terminology, now affixing the ---tard suffix to every word? Shows they must love reading all about Apple, fictional or not.

Dec 19, 07 - 02:02 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

@ Reality Check

Always an intellectual treat.

Dec 19, 07 - 02:40 pm Comment from: Ryan

"I could have an open environment to share my media content across my other entertainment devices instead of a closed environment that locks all my content in one brand."

When will people realize that an environment with Macrovision (or Microsoft, or any other) DRM is not magically "open" just because it has 3rd party hardware devices? All your content is still locked up under one brand - the only difference is that it's now a brand whose reason for existence is to obtain licensing fees from music and movie cartels, rather than to make a nice device that people want to buy.

Dec 19, 07 - 03:10 pm Comment from: Jacob

From the Article: "I believe Apple will continue to build the best portable devices for quite some time. But if it builds devices that play standards-based media..."

What exactly is this device Apple is building that doesn't play standards-based media? What is this standards-based media that it isn't playing? DRM-infected, proprietary WMA?

Dec 19, 07 - 03:48 pm Comment from: Buster

In all honesty, I prefer reading Reality Check's in depth commentary than that of Zune Tangs. Why? because RC changes a few words around now and then.

Dec 19, 07 - 03:49 pm Comment from: Zune Tang®

What Reality Check said.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Dec 19, 07 - 04:35 pm Comment from: Big Al

If Apple sells 70% of all digital music, then AAC files with fairplay DRM is the standard.

What a tool.

Dec 19, 07 - 07:19 pm Comment from: LorD1776

ChrissyOne,
Unfortunately for the MicroSoft gang, Reality Check is the smart one. Very sad.

Dec 19, 07 - 08:13 pm Comment from: Need to know

MDN Stated: Apple's iPod does not require use of the iTunes Store. Apple's iTunes Store does not require use of an iPod.

Serious Question:

Can you load mp3 files onto an iPod without the iTunes *APP* and still get them to play (using it essentially as a mass storage device), or does it need to sync with iTunes to load/enable playback?

As for the second sentence of the quoted MDN statement -- can someone rephrase/explain that. Thanks.

Dec 19, 07 - 08:17 pm Comment from: Need to know

^^^ This question applies to ripping as well. Thanks.

Dec 19, 07 - 08:57 pm Comment from: dance dance Monkeyboy

Poor, poor CNet: they really HAVE just fallen off the turnip truck. And, they WERE born yesterday. Also,

o, never mind.

Dec 19, 07 - 11:28 pm Comment from: nobodi

"... which was subsequently translated from Assholian into English ..."

Just about the funniest thing I have ever reade.

If I had been drinking anything, it would have spurted out my nose.

Dec 20, 07 - 07:01 am Comment from: memesmith

@Need to know

I belive there are (or at least were) third party alternatives to the iTunes application that allows people to load their iPods, but as itunes is free and generally excellent, I don't suppose many people use alternatives.

The second part of the statement points out that people can buy non-Fairplay DRM protected tunes from iTunes store and play them on any AAC compliant device. (And of course play Fairplay protected tunes via iTunes on their Mac or PC, without buying an iPod.

Dec 20, 07 - 08:02 pm Comment from: Need to know

@memesmith

Thanks.

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