Man calls Apple pig headed

AFTER burying the hatchet with Microsoft, RealNetwork's boss Rob Glaser seems to be turning his bile onto the entertainment gear maker Apple.

At the Digital Living Conference, Glaser said that Apple's refusal to make the iPod compatible with music services other than Apple's iTunes was "pig headedness." Glaser also said that Apple's unwillingness to cooperate with other online music vendors promotes piracy.

The piracy accusation mirrors one made by Apple against RealNetworks when in July last year the outfit released a version of its music download service called Rhapsody which was compatible with Apple's iPod. Rhapsody did not come with Steve Job's blessing and was declared heresy by Apple. Apple said that RealNetworks was using "hacker tactics" but surprisingly enough hasn't filed a lawsuit.

However, Glaser seems keen to keep the 'handbags at dawn' style of sniping continuing. Talking to News.com he said that Steve Jobs makes for a "good pinata" because he's taken a position against interoperability.

Glaser said customers should be pressuring him to change. Apple being on its own in term of interoperability makes piracy more compelling for consumers. "If I take all my MP3s from this illegal site or that illegal site, they'll work on the iPod or anything else. Whereas if I buy them legitimately, they'll only work at one place," he told the major wire.

Although you might have missed it in all the flying bile, Real has just released a revamped Rhapsody digital music service, which will let people search and listen to its catalog of songs from a Web page, instead of requiring them to download software.

More here. µ

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