Music
Thoughts on Music…
Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer, posted a open letter to the music industry today on Apple’s website challenging them to stop insisting that music purchased on the internet be copy protected. The great majority of music stored on iPods, Jobs argued, is unprotected, so removing protection on the three percent that is protected does not represent a big risk for record labels. In fact, argues Jobs, eliminating digital rights management (DRM) from digital music will increase sales and stimulate investment in the development of new devices. And DRM is a losing battle anyway, because there are always people who can crack the copy protection codes.
This is the most self-serving and laughable argument I have ever heard. Perhaps Jobs is correct that iPods contain mostly unprotected music. So what? The sales of digital music over the internet are relatively small now, but they will grow. It’s obvious that people like to buy music this way. I don’t. But a lot of people do. They find it convenient and fun. And eventually, everyone will buy most of their music this way. His next point, that DRM is a losing battle, is unconvincing. It’s like telling a homeowner to remove his burglar alarm because there’s always going to be a thief that can get in. Maybe. But it’s better than nothing.
So it ain’t gonna happen. Now, if it did happen, I’d be the first guy to jump right in. But in the words of Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction: “Let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks just yet.” I’m sorry to tell you that all the pirated music you have on your hard disks and iPods is illegal and probably always will be. Just get over it. Apple has no real risk in the short term if music becomes free. In the medium to long term, it’s hard to see how iTunes could survive the competition from the zillions of sites that would spring up over night if music were free. Who needs iTunes when you can get music from anyplace for nothing?
Jobs’s argument could be applied to his own businesses (or any business really) as well as it could to music. Let’s see…I’ll take twenty copies of OSX, a couple of copies of Aperture (the full version, not that upgrade bullshit), and just because I’m an asshole, I don’t know, um……OK a dozen copies of Final Cut Pro. And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to share them with all my friends on the internet, and, perhaps, for my troubles, make a few zlotys on the side, if you know what I mean. See how that works?
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