A re-theorization of the iPod might also take into consideration phenomena that the new technology of the iPod makes possible. Because little distinction could be made, until only recently, between the ways the Walkman and the iPod are consumed, the differences between the machines have been underemphasized. But three technical aspects of the iPod reveal the drastic differences between it and the Walkman. First, because the iPod plays digital software versions of music, the physicality of cassette tapes and CDs has been replaced with the online transfer of information via the even more expensive and elite technology of the personal computer. The economic and legal aspects of online music trading have been a topic of international debate recently, and the iPod cannot be theorized separate from these debates.