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2 Things We Hate About PC World
Cult of Mac —
... Presumably, it escaped Broida’s notice that this is hardly Apple’s decision. In fact, Jobs wrote an open letter entitled ‘Thoughts on Music’, stating that he wanted to ditch DRM entirely (from music alone, obviously—the chances of Jobs saying the same about movies are roughly on par with Arnie appearing in a hardcore sequel to Brokeback Mountain). To be fair to Broida and PC World, this letter was only published in February 2007, and so they might not have gotten around to reading it yet. ...
Dell going after iTunes/iPod ecosystem with openness...FAIL
Computerworld Blogs - Macintosh & Apple —
... that will try to form an alliance of Apple's enemies to usurp the king of digital music. This has no chance of succeeding. What I think everyone, except possibly Amazon, doesn't get is that Apple is succeeding in iTunes/iPod because it makes using digital music easy, not because it is using DRM. DRM? That is the music industry's decision in audio files. In video, I think Apple would like to keep DRM for rentals but don't think it needs to use it for video purchases. Apple has publicly denounced it and sells music free of DRM where it can. Other MP3 players can play ...
Apple Monopolistic? Maybe. Control Freaks? Definitely!
Technologizer —
... story also says that Apple is the only company that can sell music for the iPod and iPhone, which is just plain wrong and has been for months: Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic, Wal-Mart, and Lala all sell MP3s that play just fine on Apple devices; they all have millions of songs and most of them undercut Apple’s prices. That’s because the music market is slowly and surely going DRM-free, a scenario that Steve Jobs expressed support for in his famous February 2007 memo “Thoughts on Music.” Not very monopolistic. ...
Apple's Anti-DRM Stance: Why It's More Talk Than Action
Byte of the Apple - BusinessWeek —
... What matters is that so far, the results suggest that DRM isn't high on consumers' list of concerns. "DRM-free sales are very good at Amazon and Walmart,” says one source familiar with the test. “But DRM-enabled products are doing just about as well. It could be that we’re just in transition. But there doesn’t seem to be this overwhelming consumer demand for everything MP3.” This leaves Apple right where it wants to be: it can claim it’s against that nasty old DRM (remember Steve Jobs’ memo on the topic a year ago?), without any pressing need to do anything about it. A ...
What Could (Should?) Steve Jobs And Other Admired CEOs Do To Bolster Investor Confidence?
Byte of the Apple - BusinessWeek —
... (or as a fallback, write a memo ). I’m thinking of something akin to a public service announcement. The point wouldn’t be to suggest that everything will be rosy—which it won’t—but rather to urge for calm in these scary times. After all, he and other entrepreneurs have all been through such periods in their careers. Some straight talk about how they’ve dealt with adversity in the past, and how they’re dealing with it now, might calm some nerves. Heck, why not have the gang down at Chiat Day create spots featuring not only Jobs, but also invite people like Bill Gates, Jeff ...
What Could (Should?) Steve Jobs And Other Admired CEOs Do To Bolster Investor Confidence?
MacBytes.com —
... (or as a fallback, write a memo ). I’m thinking of something akin to a public service announcement. The point wouldn’t be to suggest that everything will be rosy—which it won’t—but rather to urge for calm in these scary times. After all, he and other entrepreneurs have all been through such periods in their careers. Some straight talk about how they’ve dealt with adversity in the past, and how they’re dealing with it now, might calm some nerves. Heck, why not have the gang down at Chiat Day create spots featuring not only Jobs, but also invite people like Bill Gates, Jeff ...
Rumor: iTunes music to go DRM-free today
The Apple Core —
... for the future of DRM in an open letter, titled “ Thoughts on Music :” Continue on the current course, License its FairPlay DRM technology, or Abolish DRMs entirely It appears from today’s news that Apple is leaning toward option three. Where do you stand on the DRM issue? Necessary evil or devil incarnate?
Expo: DRM-free announcement is music to consumers' ears
Macworld —
... Mac mini, or the mythical iPhone nano, but for my money the most important announcement of the keynote came shoved in the last ten minutes or so of Tuesdasy’s presentation: the news that Apple had struck a deal with the other three major labels to finally offer—eventually—iTunes’s entire song catalog without Digital Rights Management. It’s the culmination of something Steve Jobs said that he was setting out to accomplish way back in February of 2007 when he published his open letter, Thoughts on Music . At the time, DRM was just the way things were : it was the tradeoff that ...
Heated Christmas call from Jobs secured iTunes changes
AppleInsider —
... equal." The labels wanted to price hot new tracks at higher prices to maximize profits at the height of their popularity. When Apple refused to budge, Universal threatened to pull its songs once the contract expired. Universal and its peers had also demanded for months that Apple license FairPlay DRM to other sellers so tracks purchased from iTunes could be played on any device, claiming that was better for customer choice. Instead, Jobs turned the tables, penning a February 2007 open letter in which he ...
The Problem With Variable Pricing
TheAppleBlog —
... We can only hope that the success of super-distributors like Apple will endow them with the financial and political might to force the labels to rethink their strategies. Steve Jobs’ open letter to the record labels certainly helped push them into DRM-free distribution far sooner than they might otherwise have managed under their own steam. ...
Apple: Paranoid
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) —
... They've found a secret formula that works. In the words of Steve Jobs, "there is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets." ...
An open letter to Steve Jobs: Is the core of Apple rotten?
Computerworld Blogs - Macintosh & Apple —
... recently, "There's something unseemly about what Apple is doing. It's very counter to the ideals of openness, which is a concept Apple pioneered in computing." Also, hypocritical given that you encouraged openness in the music industry in 2007. What's good for the goose and all. My fear is also that you've drunk too much of your own Apple-flavored Kool-Aid. These days, the media is portraying you as a cult-like figure, a messianic leader tending to his flock. Your presentations at the ...
