Neither of those apply to the iTunes database format. The point Bruno was making earlier is that Palm could have written their own app that reads the iTunes database to find where the music files are, and sync them to the device.

I did miss your earlier comment about the iPod database, and I do remember that specific "lockout". To me, it still seems like it was a change to help with DB integrity between the iPod and iTunes, as it contained the iPod device ID and a signature from the iTunes DB along with some other numbers. Had Apple been sitting there making the change only to lock out 3rd party sync tools, they could have easily changed it every version of iTunes. They haven't changed it beyond that one time though.

The DAAP thing is annoying to me, as it simply pushed it deeper into being a proprietary protocol. DLNA seems to have become the standard for streaming media across a local network, and it's a standard Apple has continued to ignore.