[A2k] Briton Invented iPod, DRM and On-Line Music in 1979

[M. Mansouri]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Dear all,

Here is a slightly controversial but nevertheless interesting article.

Best wishes,

Mori Mansouri

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http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/briton-invented.html
Briton Invented iPod, DRM and On-Line Music in 1979
By Charlie Sorrel September 09, 2008 | 9:33:06 AMCategories: Apple,
Apple, Innovations, Innovations, Media Players,Media Players

Picture credit: Steve Nicholson
Today Apple is almost certain to announce, at the very least, a new,
taller iPod Nano. But amidst the hype surrounding the "Let's Rock"
event, it's easy to get so caught up in the iPod's future that we
forget where it came from.
The iPod was not invented in 2001 in Cupertino, California. It was
invented in England in 1979, by =93serial inventor=94 Kane Kramer.
This is not a story of intellectual property theft, or of big
companies putting the screws on the little man. Instead, it is just
the retelling of another old story =97 the story of a lone, visionary
inventor and his inability to market a product that appeared way
before its time.
Kramer came up with the idea for a pocket-sized, portable solid state
music player with a friend, James Campbell. Kramer was 23, Campbell
21. The IXI System had a display screen and buttons for four-way
navigation. In a report presented to investors in 1979, the IXI was
described as being the size of a cigarette packet. Is this sounding
familiar yet?
Back in 1979, a memory chip would store a paltry three and a half
minutes of music. Kramer fully expected this to improve, and
confidently foresaw a market for reliable, high quality digital music
players which would be popular with both consumers and the record
labels. It could actually be argued that he was still ahead of Apple
after the firat iPod went on sale =97 that had a hard drive and Kramer
had moved onto flash memory years earlier.
Much has been made of Apple somehow =93stealing=94 the technology. But the
patent did what all patents do, whether used or not. It lapsed, and
whether Apple took the idea from there or from somewhere else, it was
all perfectly legitimate. In fact, when Apple was suing (and counter-
sued by) Burst.com in 2006 it cited the invention as =93prior art=94 to
dispute Burst=92s patents. Apple even called Kramer in to give evidence.
But anyone can dream up a magic futuristic gadget. That=92s where James
Campbell came in. Campbell was an electronics whizz and between them
the men came up with four prototypes. According to Kramer=92s website, a
fifth, pre-production unit actually went on sale at the APRS
exhibition at Earls Court, London.


But the really surprising part of Kramer=92s invention is not the
hardware but the infrastructure behind it. It eerily foreshadows the
iTunes Store and pretty much any modern online music store.
Content was to be stored on a central server and distributed to music
stores vie telephone line (remember =97 in these days there was no
internet and almost no home computers). Customers would take their
players into the store and buy music which would be loaded onto the
IXI chips inside (the chips were removable, like a tiny cassette).
This alone would obviate the need for physical media, but take a look
at a few points from Kramer=92s investor pitch to see just how close he
got to the future:
Immediacy of delivery
No physical inventory and therefore no production costs
Live performances taped and then made immediately available
Entire back catalogs could be put on sale at almost no cost
New, risky artists can be promoted with low cost
Instant micro-billing, handled centrally
Vending machines for self-purchasing =97 located in bars, filling
stations, supermarkets (it seems quaint now that these were to be coin
operated)
Uncanny. Kramer also foresaw DRM, or digital rights management, before
it even had a name. This is worth transcribing (the original was
written on a typewriter):
For every record or tape of conventional format sold, over one copy is
made in an illegal form.
Therefore over 100% of the total sale potential is lost.
With IXI, all programme material (recordings) is stored and
transmitted on a high security enclosed digital network, all terminals
being supplied under license to retailers. Because of the attention to
security, it is impossible to break into the system undetected, thus
preventing bootlegging of the programme material by fraudulent means.
The first stage at which the digital encoded programme material is
converted to analogue (audio) signals, is when the IXI CHIP is played
back in the home playback unit.
It can be seen from the above, that the format prevents mass copying
of programme material by fraudulent traders and home copying.
Though it is easy to laugh at this optimism, it=92s possible that Kramer
foresaw the recording industry=92s huge reluctance to online delivery
and attempted to diffuse it. What is really laughable, though, is that
the same recording industry is still thinking in exactly the same way
almost thirty years later.
Now Kramer is working on something called the "Bully Button", a
wearable recording device which can be discretely activated by kids
(or adults) when they are set upon by bullies. It's a laudable idea,
but the leap into the future he made with the IXI and it's ecosystem.
Back in the 1970s, Kramer was thinking way ahead of his time. Sadly
for him, it took the market until now to catch up.