Real and DMCA?

So this news broke a few days ago, but the interesting thing about ot is that there are no DMCA claims yet. Real has effectively put a bright spotlight on what is wrong with laws like DMCA (for which I will blame Clinton and the republican controlled congress of the day equally). People love to use the "Hood welded shut" analogy when discussing open source, but in this case I think we need a slightly different analogy.

Apple's iPod is like a car with a locked gas cap. The only gas stations with the keys are ownled by Apple and pump a special grade of gasoline. That gas grade doesn't perform any better than Real Gas, but it costs just a little bit more and you get just a little less mileage.

Now Apple is pissed off because they have started distributing keys to Real Gas stations and people with iCars can fill up there.

Wait one smegging minute, I thought that Apple was not making money off the iTMS. One would think that they were making money off the iPod sales themselves. One might by extension also believe that Apple should welcome competition in the music sales space if it would drive iPod sales.

One might also think that Apple is among the top ten companies most adept at shooting themselves in the foot.