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Maybe Steve Jobs doesn't suck

I'd always viewed Steve Jobs as a smug, annoying prick, and, well, I guess he is.

Still, I've got to give him props for this.


...Steve Jobs offers straight talk about DRM and why the labels insisted on it, then lays out three possible ways forward: a continuation of today's incompatible DRM situation; Apple licensing Fairplay to other online music stores; and the total "abolition" of digital rights management.

After thoughtfully weighing the pros and cons of each, Jobs concludes that the best course of action is to abandon DRM completely. He then asks for help in convincing record labels to allow Apple to sell music without it, writing, "Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free." The essay offers a fair assessment of the situation, in my opinion, although I would be happy to hear what other people think about this in the comments section.

All right, I'm not naive enough to believe that there isn't a competitive angle to his position here, but it's damned refreshing to hear anyone this close to the business side of the music industry to say such a thing. Hell, I might have to buy an Apple after this. (iPhones are still gay though.)

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Download Morpheus and you can get all the music you like for free. Not that I do this.

> Download Morpheus and you can get all the music you like for free.

And also get all the spyware you want. ;-)

But yeah, I hear ya. My main beef with DRM is not that it can't be circumvented (it can, of course, which is all the more reason to get rid of it.) I hate the way it fucks up music that I *do* pay for.

More and more frequently, I buy a "CD" (and I put the term in quotes, because often these DRM discs do *not* conform to the IEEE standard for a CD, and therefore to label them as such is fraudulent) that won't play correctly on my computer, or on the older CD player in my car, etc. I hate that.

I didn't know anyone still used Morpheus. eMule and Bittorrent these days, methinks.

I've often thought that the recording industry was shooting itself in the foot by trying to criminilize their own customers.

Wait. So does that mean you don't have an iPod?

Oops, busted!

But I'm going to buy one, because I'm flying to Hawaii next month and that's too long a freakin' plane ride to do without tons of tunes.

It's not even the tunes...there's so much free content out there by way of podcasts that you'll never be bored again. Not that you need an ipod to listen to podcasts, any mp3 payer will do, but you really can't beat the itunes setup for ease of use at the moment.

Do I smell a Cynical nation podcast in the future...?

True, and I'll probably be using it a lot for podcasts and other spoken word entertainment.

The CN podcast idea has been bandied about between another blogger and myself, but hasn't happened yet.

Or we could just set up a microphone the next time we all go to Aurthur's Tavern... assuming you could hear anything over the din.

Hmm, I wonder what their steaks will taste like when they're not marinated in clouds of stale cigarette smoke?

BNJ - Hmm, I wonder what their steaks will taste like when they're not marinated in clouds of stale cigarette smoke?


Good question...maybe that was part of the seasoning process after all...

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