A) you are right! sad, isn’t it?

B) Yes it is not that fast, but it is faster than using P2P illegal download if you are looking for something that is not a recent hit

C)Would love to hear more about your product and test it a bit – but how many are actually using it?

D) the average user doesn’t care about DRM – and I am willing to get DRM content if it is in high quality and on time.

E)I do like Apple products, and till now I didn’t see any major issue with it. I am very enthusiastic about their ability to create superior products. However, I am still critical about their products – when I’ll see something wrong with them

F) that’s and intriguing issue. There is a Wired article about how everything that Apple is doing everything wrong but still winning a market share.

G) well – is their products PERFECT? or Windows’ user experience suck so much that I feel in heaven when using Apple products?

And last but not least – It is great that you are investing time and effort if the conversation here – THANK YOU for that!

While I always empathize with your deep mac immersion when I read your posts – I have alot of remarks on this one:

A) You have broken several laws (some international & US Federal) and conducted illegal activity – You falsified your identity, living address, and perjured yourself when signed that you declare that all the info u submit is true!

Now – personally, I don’t care the least about that and on occasion have to resort to such means myself – but you have commited illegal international activity just so you can behave & pay as a law-abiding user!!

That internal-contradiction in your actions – is the greatest pun of this story (to me)

B) Factual debate – you mentioned speed. iTunes has one of the slowest VOD content delivery on the web today!! Both on the original iTunes and on the new movie rentals. They can’t deliver video content ‘for shot’ (if I can be blunt). Even when you are inside the US – it’s way way slower than streaming video sites, or other CDN based hosting services.

Ask your friend Google about “itunes slow downloads” and read just the first few dozens of over 2.5 Million results!

C) In fact, and I’m sorry to shamelessly plug 1 of the products our company developed – we have a “Video Accelerator for iTunes”, which we sell for a yearly subscription! I’m mentioning that not as an advertisement – but to show that the iTunes VOD slowness is SO bad – that users will agree to pay an extra subscription, in addition to the iTunes subscription they pay for already.

D) DUDE – iTunes content is DRM based !!!! That alone should prevent you (or anyone) from praising it. Try to copy your songs /videos to more than 3 destinations – even if they are all legit – you can’t! They won’t let you!

Wehn you Torrent your music – you can copy it and move it as much as you want -

when you purchased yours – you are limited to 3 lame copies….

DRM is against humanity by definition (don’t they teach that at schools nowadays?

People are worried about the greenhouse-effect & pollution – I worry about DRM!

it will be the cause of humanity’s end – mark my words

E) And this is a more general note: I think that very much like you, I am also constantly amazed by the sheer difference apple products & software treat me as a user, compared to windows. amazing design, innovative UI, an amazing combo of aesthetics & practicality – U name it!

But – I think that sometimes, in order for our empathy towards something to be maximized, we tend to color the picture pink – slowly losing touch with the situation @ hand.

F) Back to the topic at hand – iTunes clearly proved beyond doubt they know how to serve & sell media content delivery (we are talking about bytes, not atoms – to quote Nick Negroponte). That said,

they still have a long way to go technology-wise, and market-wise.

iTunes DRM, Like Apple’s ‘Locked iPhone’ strategy – is a very wrong corporate standpoint, IMH, one which apple will run away form soon – or pay a bitter price.

G) Last (but not least) – One Note: I am reading a lot of blogs by apple users and fans. I like yours considerably. However, I have failed to see you criticize any of their products or services. By that rationale – It seems you experience a series of PERFECT products and user experience. The truth is FAR from it – but this is probably better left for another discussion.

H) So while I can’t really relate to this post – I can say that I never used to by shareware apps on PC – and the MAc drove me to it…

Sorry for making my reply longer than the original post — I have a tendency to do that

David

@Bill – I completely agree – though I believe that most people can define what is good, but not write a spec for that….

Actually, the same arguments can be applied to producing content instead of viewing it. People can choose to pay for it and have the final product look good… or do it themselves, in which case, they have no certainty of quality, AND the time they’ll waste learning what to do and then learning how to do it (poorly) could have been spent by them way more productively.

Essentially, they *lose* money by taking themselves out of being financially productive for way more hours than it would have taken someone that they hired who knows what they’re doing. In terms of watching shows, it’s better to pay for it and get exactly what you want, in exactly the quality you want it, exactly WHEN you want it.

Your researches or queries to them haven’t resulted in any action steps on their part?