Omni Founder Tears Apple a New One

Wil Shipley, current Chief Monster of Delicious Monster and founder of Omni Group, is not pleased with Apple’s ringtone strategy on the iPhone.

Scratch that. He’s furious:

Not that, uh, we have to pay attention to what the record companies think is Not Allowed, because we have already licensed the song for playback on any device if we bought a CD — we are allowed to play it on our iPhone already. Just not in response to someone calling us. The record companies have MADE UP some new, retroactive copyright and Apple is enforcing it for them. The result is, a million customers don’t get to do something cool with their iPhones.
Because of greed.
Honestly, I can see Apple saying, “Well, you see, the record companies would have been upset with us if we hadn’t charged anything for ringtones.” Yah, well, that’s the price you get for engaging. The price for owning the distribution of the content and the hardware and the software is that you end up making compromises in the hardware and software in order to protect the content.

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Yow. There’s a lot more through the link, so read on. This is some harsh language from a NeXT true believer, and it’s essential reading. I’ve been pretty upset about the iPhone ringtone system, but Shipley nails what’s wrong with it. Fantastic stuff.

8 comments »

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Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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anon
> The record companies have MADE UP some new, retroactive copyright and Apple is enforcing it for them
he forgot to say that the courts have sided with the record companies, i.e. a ringtone performance right legally exists
http://blog.colin-sullivan.com Colin
It’s not hard to create your own ring tone from music you legally purchased. The price is convenience. Paying for ring tones is not a new concept.
http://www.ciopodcast.com JT Koffenberger
okay.. while we agree with the concept of purchased CD content… what about the bigger “missing the boat” mistake. My own stuff!!! If I create a song or a personal ring tone in oh… say Garage Band… why should I be prevented from using it as a ringtone? What about if I generate that content in a non-Apple product? I think something needs to be done to allow people to use at a minimum, their own content as ringtones.
Austin
I sort of agree. It is very frusterating that I canot use my favorite music as a ringone and that I have to settle. But I can see it very clearly through Jobs’s eyes. He dosent want to get these record labels and artists angry, because that would hurt sales and could possibly make artists withdrawl their music from iTunes.
I go both ways with this one, although it would be nice to choose any song I wanted for a ringtone.
http://www.alleged.org.uk/pdc/ Damian Cugley
There is another possibility, which is that there is enough legal doubt over ringtones that Apple have no choice other than to pay extra royalties to the content-hoarding companies. This is based on the idea that a ringtone is played in public, so counts as a public performance, for which Apple have not licensed the rights under their existing contracts.
While it may seem absurd that the rights to play a tune to yourself does not come with the rights to play part of a tune as a ringtone, absurdity is not a reliable guide to what is what in copyright law.
JC
Lost of customer unfriendly decisions lately. See ILounge
pete
I think it’s great the ringtones are expensive. the less we get to hear those stupid things, the better and a high pricepoint may just keep some people from getting annoying tunes as a ringtone.
garax
Correct me if I am wrong – but its easy as ABC to make mp3′s into ring tones. Apple even provide a tool for editing tracks into noce short files if you like – its called Garageband – export in and edit away. Unless the iPhone or any other peice of tech kit is so clued up to the original source as to be stupendously overly complex and clever then unless you are pretty lazy you’d never have to pay – but then again if you are lazy and you don’t mind paying that seems fine too.