Storm Brewing Between Apple and RealNetworks? RealNetworks last week introduced Harmony, a technology that allows users of the Real Music Store to download their files onto an Apple iPod, a space Apple has strongly defended for its own music store files. Apple responded, saying that Real's efforts were the "tactics and ethics of a hacker."

Apple also cautioned Real that they were investigating the ramifications of the software under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), legislation enacted in 1998 that extended American copyright law to cover digital content. Real claims that they did not violate any laws under the DMCA and said, "consumers, and not Apple, should be the ones choosing what music goes on their iPod."

A good summary of the spat can be found here.