“Contrary to some of the more breathless headlines this week, the debut of Apple Computer’s online music store is not the definitive answer to the Internet file-swapping controversy. Sorry not to participate in the general swooning, but I don’t think any of the current music services–legal and illegal–offer enough to satisfy the people and special interests on both sides of this digital divide. Still, credit Steve Jobs and Apple for creative thinking and elegant implementation. The iTunes Music Store lets users buy the music they want at 99 cents per song downloaded. As it has the active participation of all five of the major record labels, the service is kicking off with a library of some 200,000 titles. That’s not going to include everything under the sun, but it’s a good start. Even more important, Apple’s not treating folks as if they were prospective criminals,” opines Charles Cooper in a commentray for CNet News.com.
The interesting thing is that Cooper offers no real explanation as to why he thinks the iTunes Music Store is “not the definitive answer to the Internet file-swapping controversy.”
Full article here.