Apple iTunes Research Articles

ITunes Is Pretty (Useless) When You’re Blind: Digital Design Is Triggering Disability When It Could Be a Solution

This article critically examines the promise of Internet-based digital technology to open up the world to people with disabilities, and the parallel danger that the social construction of disability in the digital environment will simply come to mirror pre-existing analogue discrimination. This paper explores how technologies and innovations designed to improve access by the disabled actually enhance access for all users. The first part of the paper focuses on ‘Web 2.0’ and digital access for people with disability, particularly those with vision impairment. The online software that drives the iPod and iPhone and exclusively delivers content to these devices is iTunes. While iTunes seems on the surface to provide enormous opportunity for the vision impaired to access a broad selection of audio content, its design actually works to inhibit access to the platform for this group. Apple promotes the use of iTunes in educational settings through the iTunes U channel, and this potentially excludes those who have difficulty with access to the technology. Critically, it is these excluded people who, potentially, could benefit the most from the new technology. We consider the difficulty experienced by users of screen readers and braille tablets in relation to iTunes and highlight the potential problems for universities who seek to utilise iTunes U. In the second part of the paper we reframe disability accessibility as a principle of universal access and design and outline how changes made to assist users with disability can enhance the learning experience of all students using the Lectopia lecture recording and distribution system as an example. The third section of the paper situates these digital developments within the continuum of disability theory deploying Finkelstein’s three stages of disability development. The focus then shifts to the potential of online virtual worlds such as Second Life to act as a place where the promise of technology to mediate for disability might be realised. Goggin and Newell suggest that the Internet will not be fully accessible until disability is considered a cultural identity in the same way that class, gender and sexuality are. This article argues that accessibility must be addressed through the context of design and shared open standards for digital platforms.

Technological tying of the Apple iPhone: Unlawful in Australia?

Technology vendors are producing products and services which, by design, use technological methods to restrict interoperability and tie the use of their products and services to the use of other products and services from the same vendor. Often this type of technological tying raises concerns that it is anti-competitive. One such example is the technological tying of the Apple iPod to music purchased from the Apple iTunes Music Store, and vice versa. The new Apple iPhone contains technological locks which tie the iPhone to the mobile telephony services of a particular third-party mobile carrier, a new development in technological tying, and much more likely to be unlawful in Australia. The purpose of this article is to examine whether the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth), in its current form is adequate to deal with this type of technological tying.

Mistrust-Based Digital Rights Management

The powerful shift in copying technology over the last thirty years has destabilized how we produce copies and the economic arrangements associated with prior technologies. These technological changes have created a broad shift in the ability to make copies moving control away from producers towards consumers. As a consequence, these technologies have altered the practical enforceability of the rights that law assigns to copyright owners. Digital rights management technologies are an effort to make meaningful the legal rights of copyright owners. DRM faces severe obstacles. For preexisting products like the music CD, it has proven to be very difficult to add DRM after the fact. CDs need to work in standard CD players, and the limits DRM. The firestorm over Sony BMG's effort to produce CDs subject to DRM suggests that we are unlikely to see meaningful DRM for music CDs soon. But we are switching how we deliver content from products to services. Music CDs and eventually DVDs will be replaced by online services such as Apple's iTunes and Google Video. Both of these come with DRM built-in and both rely on identity-based DRM. Identity-based DRM ties identity to content. Content can be shared widely, but absent access to identity, the content is worthless. This is a substantial step forward for DRM, but may still be a step short of where we need to be. Content purchasers still have no reason to protect purchased content. Identity-based DRM coupled with bounty tags will create an incentives wedge between content purchasers and stripping/p2p software and with peers in a p2p network. We should want a system where content purchasers are as careful with content as they would be with identity and mistrust-based DRM may be that system.

Entertaining code: File sharing, digital rights management regimes, and criminological theories of compliance

This article outlines some of the main types of file-sharing systems and summarizes survey findings relating to file-sharing use. Three related theoretical models of compliance seeking through the use of technology are discussed, namely Lessig's (involving ‘code’ and ‘architecture’), Bottoms' (involving ‘constraint-based compliance’) and Clarke and others' work on ‘situational crime prevention’, and each is then applied to the specific topic of the illegal and legal distribution of music and films on the Internet. All these approaches recognize that, powerful though constraint-based technical measures are, legal/penal deterrents, social/cultural norms and economic incentives/disincentives all also have the potential to play central roles in obtaining compliance. Drawing from criminological work on social norms, it is suggested that the three key factors influencing the extent of normative compliance are (1) the degree to which users perceive specific digital rights management (DRM) regimes' restrictions as legitimate or as unnecessarily restrictive, (2) whether pricing policies in a given DRM regime are perceived as ‘fair’, and (3) beliefs as to what constitutes ‘acceptable’ computer usage in various different situational settings, such as at work, college or home. It is argued that the relative success of Apple's iTunes Music Store model is in part attributable to its successful exploitation of normative compliance mechanisms. The entertainment industry more generally must recognize the centrality of normative factors in patterns of compliance and non-compliance.

For here or to go? Downloading music on the move with an ultra reliable wireless Internet application

The maturing distributed file sharing technology implemented by Napster has first enabled the dissemination of musical content in digital form, permitting to customers to retrieve stored music files from around the world. In the post-Napster era, the Apple iTunes online music service has hit a record share of 16.7% in the MP3 player market [J. Mc Hugh, Why Wi-Fi is a good business? Wired (2003) 25–26]. This is only the most prominent example of the success of digital music distribution based on packet network technologies. However, to the best of our knowledge, the most noteworthy aspect of the success of digital music distribution is that little about this music delivery technology is really new. To drastically change the nature of this business, we claim that wireless delivery technology must come into the picture. This way, the digital music delivery model will benefit from the integration of the wired Internet with a broad gamut of wireless access technologies, such as WiFi, WPAN and 3G. In this paper we address the problem of the “customer on the move”; we present a wireless Internet application designed to support the distribution of digital music to handheld devices. The main novelty of our software is the ability to provide a seamless music delivery service even in the presence of handoffs within the same radio medium (horizontal) and across media (vertical). Actual measurements from a deployed application show that our system can deliver a smooth, ultra reliable, low latency music service to mobile users.

ITunes: How Copyright, Contract, and Technology Shape the Business of Digital Media - A Case Study

In this paper, the Berkman Center's Digital Media Project has conducted an exploratory case study on Apple's iTunes Online Music Store from a legal and business perspective. The objective of this analysis is twofold: First, it seeks to gain advanced knowledge of the relationships among copyright law, contract law, digital rights management schemes and business modeling processes in the Post-Napster world. Understanding such interactions is crucial when attempting to balance the divergent interests of consumers, artists, the entertainment industry, and technology manufacturers through regulatory mechanisms such as law, code market mechanisms, and adjustment of social norms. Second, the paper is intended as a further step toward expanding the knowledge base of the Digital Media Project beyond U.S. law to include a more detailed coverage of the legal and regulatory frameworks of other countries. The focus of the comparative law analysis conducted in this initial study is on European jurisdictions and selected nations in the Asia-Pacific.

IEEE first workshop on networking issues on multimedia entertainment

GLOBECOM 2004—Satellite Workshop November 29th 2004 Dallas, TX, USA The growing availability of digital contents and the simultaneous cost reductions in storage, processing, and networking is driving the growth of the entertainment technology. Many of the technologies pioneered in emerging entertainment applications have also found use in a large spectrum of more serious settings, ranging from telemedicine to in-home, in-car, in-flight multimedia distribution platforms. The success of the entertainment technology is confirmed by several facts. Take, for example, the two following cases: in 2003 the revenues generated by games have yet again surpassed those provided by the movie industry; the Apple iTunes online music service has hit a record share of almost 20% in the MP3 player market in the last semester of 2003. Further, while in the past entertainment technology traditionally offered predominantly passive experiences (e.g., video on demand), continual advances in network and computer technologies are providing tools for implementing greater interactivity and for enabling consumers to enjoy more exciting experiences, such as, for example, interactive digital TV, interactive theatre and orchestrated music and sound design. Simply put, today's entertainment technology is able to create "entertainment spaces" in which people experience a world where games, movies, songs, plus news, sport events and shows, are all made available for instant enjoyment with just one click. Another beneficial aspect of high-tech entertainment is that this phenomenon is pulling together an extremely diverse group of experts specializing in different technical areas, such as networking, computer graphics, games, animation, multimedia design, human-computer interaction, educational media and software engineering. Even though high-tech entertainment promotes interdisciplinary fusion, however, only the ubiquity of wireless/wired communication is considered suitable for accepting the challenge of building a "large interactive environment" for the delivery of the maximum entertainment value to millions of consumers worldwide. In this respect, there is a great hope that the wired and wireless Internet (along with its protocols, architectures, programming styles and technological solutions) may take over this complex scenario for fulfilling the consumer expectations. The first IEEE International Workshop on Networking Issues in Multimedia Entertainment provides an open forum for researchers, engineers and academia to exchange the latest technical information and research findings on Next-Generation Multimedia Networking concepts, technologies, systems, and applications for entertainment covering existing deployments, current developments and future evolution. Authors are solicited to submit complete unpublished papers in the following, but not limited to, topic areas: Networked Technologies for Entertainment: Architectures, Platforms and Protocols for Networked Games Internetworking, Vertical Roaming and Session Handoffs for Entertainment (Internet to WLAN, to 3G/BT/...) Home LANs, Body and Personal Area Networks for Entertainment Media and Device Adaptation Music and Movie Distribution Next Generation Wireless Technologies for Entertainment (IEEE802.11n, UWB and Beyond) Opportunistic Multi-hopping and Opportunistic Networks for Entertainment QoS and Security Support for Entertainment Resource and Service Discovery Technologies (P2P, LDAP, ...) Technologies for Networked In-Home/Car/Flight/Train Entertainment TV-Centric and Broadcast Networks for Entertainment Emerging Entertainment Applications: Agent-based Entertainment Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality Evolutionary Entertainment Field Trials Interactive Television and Theater Massive Multiplayer Games Mobile and Wireless Entertainment Networked Entertainment Networked Narrative and Digital Interactive Storytelling Networked Video, Music and Sound Design Pervasive Entertainment Personalized and User-Adapted Television Sport, News and Entertainment Virtual Technology and Virtual Environments for Entertainment Wearable Entertainment Wireless and Mobile Gaming Testbed and Performance Evaluations

Call for papers

1st IEEE International Workshop on Networking Issues in Multimedia Entertainment (NIME'04) GLOBECOM 2004—Satellite Workshop November 29th 2004 Dallas, TX, USA The growing availability of digital contents and the simultaneous cost reductions in storage, processing, and networking is driving the growth of the entertainment technology. Many of the technologies pioneered in emerging entertainment applications have also found use in a large spectrum of more serious settings, ranging from telemedicine to in-home, in-car, in-flight multimedia distribution platforms. The success of the entertainment technology is confirmed by several facts. Take, for example, the two following cases: in 2003 the revenues generated by games have yet again surpassed those provided by the movie industry; the Apple iTunes online music service has hit a record share of almost 20% in the MP3 player market in the last semester of 2003. Further, while in the past entertainment technology traditionally offered predominantly passive experiences (e.g., video on demand), continual advances in network and computer technologies are providing tools for implementing greater interactivity and for enabling consumers to enjoy more exciting experiences, such as, for example, interactive digital TV, interactive theatre and orchestrated music and sound design. Simply put, today's entertainment technology is able to create "entertainment spaces" in which people experience a world where games, movies, songs, plus news, sport events and shows, are all made available for instant enjoyment with just one click. Another beneficial aspect of high-tech entertainment is that this phenomenon is pulling together an extremely diverse group of experts specializing in different technical areas, such as networking, computer graphics, games, animation, multimedia design, human-computer interaction, educational media and software engineering. Even though high-tech entertainment promotes interdisciplinary fusion, however, only the ubiquity of wireless/wired communication is considered suitable for accepting the challenge of building a "large interactive environment" for the delivery of the maximum entertainment value to millions of consumers worldwide. In this respect, there is a great hope that the wired and wireless Internet (along with its protocols, architectures, programming styles and technological solutions) may take over this complex scenario for fulfilling the consumer expectations. The first IEEE International Workshop on Networking Issues in Multimedia Entertainment provides an open forum for researchers, engineers and academia to exchange the latest technical information and research findings on Next-Generation Multimedia Networking concepts, technologies, systems, and applications for entertainment covering existing deployments, current developments and future evolution. Authors are solicited to submit complete unpublished papers in the following, but not limited to, topic areas: Networked Technologies for Entertainment: Architectures, Platforms and Protocols for Networked Games Internetworking, Vertical Roaming and Session Handoffs for Entertainment (Internet to WLAN, to 3G/BT/...) Home LANs, Body and Personal Area Networks for Entertainment Media and Device Adaptation Music and Movie Distribution Next Generation Wireless Technologies for Entertainment (IEEE802.11n, UWB and Beyond) Opportunistic Multi-hopping and Opportunistic Networks for Entertainment QoS and Security Support for Entertainment Resource and Service Discovery Technologies (P2P, LDAP, ...) Technologies for Networked In-Home/Car/Flight/Train Entertainment TV-Centric and Broadcast Networks for Entertainment Emerging Entertainment Applications: Agent-based Entertainment AAugmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality AEvolutionary Entertainment AField Trials AInteractive Television and Theater AMassive Multiplayer Games AMobile and Wireless Entertainment ANetworked Entertainment ANetworked Narrative and Digital Interactive Storytelling ANetworked Video, Music and Sound Design APervasive Entertainment APersonalized and User-Adapted Television ASport, News and Entertainment AVirtual Technology and Virtual Environments for Entertainment AWearable Entertainment AWireless and Mobile Gaming ATestbed and Performance Evaluations Guidelines for Paper Submission: Original papers from the above mentioned topics or related areas will be considered. Each submitted paper will be fully refereed and undergo a blind review process. The accepted papers will be published in the IEEE-sponsored workshop proceedings. Submission guidelines should be strictly followed. 1. Submit an electronic copy of the paper in a .pdf or .ps format through the EDAS paper submission site (http://edas.info). 2. The body of the paper should not exceed 15 pages double spaced (4000 words, 12 point font) 3. A separate cover sheet should show the title of the paper, the author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s), and the address (including e-mail, telephone, and fax) to which the correspondence should be sent.