Corey Doctorow on Boing Boing:
The latest iPods have a cryptographic "checksum" in their song databases that prevents third-party applications from synching with the portable music players. This means that iPods can no longer be used with operating systems where iTunes doesn't exist -- like Linux, where gtkpod and Amarok are common free tools used by iPod owners to load their players.
He continues by whining over this. Personally I think this is a good thing. The vast majority of iPod owners use iTunes. And why wouldn't you, it's one of the best media players out there (with the exception of Windows Media Player). I don't have to make clear that Apple is no big fan of freetards, and freetards are the ones that create hacks to use other software to sync with the iPod.
It is important for Apple to keep using iTunes with their iPods, because it drives sales for their iTunes Music Store. This is their good right. This is what they worked for. They worked hard to make a great product -- they planted the seeds and get to harvest what grows out of them. And no anti-DRM boohoo whiny is going to stop them from doing that.
