Exactly! I can't see how a sane person could say that Apple has a monopoly... Well, I guess they could say that Apple has a monopoly on iPods, but certainly NOT on personal music players! How many brands are out there? There are tons of flash memory music players out there, and they're getting cheaper and cheaper. And all of them play standard MP3s. Heck, I've got a Sony portable Discman that I've had for years that plays WMA and MP3 files, my car has a CD player that plays them too. You can get off-brand portable MP3 CD players now for as little as $30! As does my home DVD player, hooked into my stereo (great for playing ripped audio books. I have the first 4 Harry Potter audio books on a single DVD!). Seems to me that there are plenty of places that REAL can pedal their wares. Of course, if they only want to distribute their music in REAL format, forcing Apple to add REAL format to the iPod, it sounds to me that THEY are trying to keep things proprietary themselves, by excluding all those MP3 players I mentioned earlier! Exactly what they're claiming Apple is doing with the iPod!
Saying that Apple has a monopoly on "personal music players" because the iPod uses their own service is like the wine industry saying that oil companies have a monopoly on personal travel, because cars don't run on wine, only gasoline! Of course, the courts might just rule in the wine industry's favor.
Mark
All the Real Player has to do is give up its own proprietary (and annoying) RM format and generate video output in MP4 format - instant iPod compatibility. But since this is the man who cursed America with Maria Cantwell, I wouldn't expect him to know much about standards. ;)