“Apple CEO Steve Jobs hates digital-rights management (DRM)–and he wants you to know that the music industry is responsible for those restrictions on entertainment that keep people from ripping, mixing, and burning their own media,” Brad King writes for technology Review.
“At least, that’s the idea he posted on Apple’s website yesterday,” King writes. “Let me first start by saying that Jobs’s apparent change of heart about DRM is long overdue. I’ve been a (flip and sarcastic) critic of his draconian view of digital-rights management, which has raised the hackles of the Apple community. But Jobs’s voice is a welcome addition to the discussion about looking for ways to promote an environment that includes unrestricted media files.”
MacDailyNews Take: King has absolutely no proof that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a “change of heart” about DRM or any knowledge of Steve Jobs’ “view of digital-rights management” being “draconian” because neither is true. Jobs was forced to add DRM by the music cartels in order to sell their music online. King’s ham-handed attempt to twist the issue is laughable. Yes, we’re mocking you, Brad, because you can’t even execute yellow journalism properly.
Well, there’s a lot of smart people at the music companies. The problem is, they’re not technology people… And so when the Internet came along, and Napster came along, they didn’t know what to make of it… And so they’re fairly vulnerable to people telling them technical solutions will work, when they won’t… When we first went to talk to these record companies — you know, it was a while ago. It took us 18 months. And at first we said: None of this technology that you’re talking about’s gonna work. We have Ph.D.’s here, that know the stuff cold, and we don’t believe it’s possible to protect digital content. – Steve Jobs, Rolling Stone, December 03, 2003
King continues, “However, let’s not be misled by the press response to his post. Jobs isn’t leading this discussion. There have been countless voices, from RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser to MP3.com’s Michael Robertson and all of the digital-entertainment companies that went out of business…”
MacDailyNews Take: Jobs is leading the discussion because his voice in this market trumps all of the peons that King mentions combined. Most of them were advocating that Apple license them FairPlay, so they could sell music for the device that Apple designed, built, and worked so hard to make number one. They wanted in for free, for the heck of it. That’s not how business works, Brad.
Related articles:
Apple’s roadkill whine in unison: ‘incompatibility is slowing growth of digital music’ – August 12, 2005
Real CEO Glaser begs Apple to make iPod play nice with other music services – March 24, 2004
King continues, “With his ‘Thoughts on Music’ post, Jobs is deftly trying to switch the attention from his monopoly to the music industry’s oligopoly.”
MacDailyNews Take: iPods do not require iTunes Store use. The iTunes Store does not require iPod use. The two are not tied. Also, Apple has no monopoly on either portable media player or online music sales. And, even if Apple does have a monopoly, that is not illegal. It is only illegal to abuse a monopoly. Ask Microsoft about that distinction, Brad.
King continues, “Apple is given too much credit for being the scrappy little computer company that could; it’s just a company. It has positives (great interface design, plug-and-play products) and negatives (a terrible record on the environment, closed networks).”
MacDailyNews Take: Brad needs to read viewpoints other than publicity-hungy Greenpeace’s self-serving press releases. The EPA does not support Greenpeace’s PR-driven charges against Apple Computer. Information on Apple’s recycling programs and industry-leading environmental policies is available online (http://www.apple.com/environment). And, to what “closed network” exactly is King referring, TCP/IP?
King continues, “The decision to move in this direction would make sense, particularly on the heels of the decision to change the company’s name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc., a symbolic gesture that signals its decision to move away from personal computing and into the consumer-electronics and digital-entertainment space.”
MacDailyNews Take: King’s BS is seemingly never-ending. Apple rightly changed their name to reflect growth in the breadth of their product portfolio, not the elimination or subjugation of personal computing. King’s anti-Apple agenda is transparent throughout his article. See also: Writer: I’ve never used an iPod or iTunes, but I think people who do are dupes – Brad King, January 04, 2006
King continues, “Jobs has the ear of the entertainment industry in a way that Microsoft, RealNetworks, and scads of other companies never have. If he builds it, those companies will follow. If he builds it.”
MacDailyNews Take: Hey, look, King got something right in the first part. Too bad he reverts to wrongheadedness once again by failing to understand that the music cartels must first deign to let Jobs build the DRM-free future that he described yesterday.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Contact info: http://www.technologyreview.com/cust/feedback.aspx
Related articles:
Apple’s Jobs jolts music industry; Zune exec calls Jobs’ call for DRM-free music ‘irresponsible’ – February 07, 2007
Dvorak: Apple CEO Steve Jobs is dead right about DRM – February 07, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ posts rare open letter: ‘Thoughts on Music’ – calls for DRM-free music – February 06, 2007
Pass Go! Get a free laptop!
Stupid jerk-off.
“Terrible record on the environment” is the clue that this is just another bozo repeating the gossip he reads from others on the intarweb.
As always, I encourage all to read the actual Greenpeace document and note that the difference between Apple and Dell in their eyes, is that Dell promised to do some things better in the future and they don’t like the wording of Apple’s corporate policy on the precautionary principle. In other words, just words, nothing about actual toxins hitting the actual environment. And not even a response to Apple’s contention that they’ve been leaders in things like eliminating CRTs (landfill issue, toxic issue AND energy/greenhouse gas issue).
Apple has a terrible record when it comes to sucking up to Greenpeace. Apple, for better or worse, of actions, not promises.
Such a bent article… I can’t believe people insist on blaming Apple and Jobs for the DRM mess!
Jobs’ open letter couldn’t have been clearer. It’s always, from day one, been the RIAA that’s restricted online music sales to the use of DRM.
I keep coming back to one idea: more and more, news = propaganda.
It’s what’s said and not said, represented, misrepresented at the author’s discretion, not necessarily what IS. This article ultimately is not earth-shattering news, but is this the same sort of journalism regarding more major issues? I suspect it is. For those who get inflamed and impassioned because of what their favorite news source reports, maybe several other sources of an “opposing” ilk should be used, so maybe the truth can be triangulated from all the BS. We all love to smell our own brand, so if the sh*t your reading sounds really, really good, be wary of your own biases. That goes for some Apple folks here, too, I think.
It is indicative of the enormous interest in everything Apple that journalists around the world feel the need to comment even when they have nothing to say.
If the error rate in articles about Apple is representative of the accuracy of journalists overall, why do we read anything?
One would think that the editor(s) of journals such as Technology Review would be concerned about accuracy in their reporting. Yet there is no sign that anyone is actually concerned at all. Not even the UK’s BBC, or the Guardian, seem to be able to ensure a consistently high standard of journalism when it comes to Apple.
And how that Enderle fellow manages to keep his job I can’t imagine.
Anyway, in the next few months, the biggest story will not be the success of Apple…
… it will be the fall of Microsoft.
And I can guarantee we are going to enjoy reading about that…
Not only do I disagree with King, but it sounds like he hasn’t got a clue about his chosen subject.
Tho I guess disagreeing with him makes me a h4rdcore Mac fanboi – that seems to be most people’s favourite way of disregarding any Mac users comments.
Excellent job as usual, MDN!
MDN brutally pwns Brad King. Ouch!
King oughta change his name to “Hamburger” after undergoing MDN’s thorough grinding.
Didn’t Steve start DRM with the AAC/AC3/M4A (whatever format it is) at the iTunes Store. Fair enough it’s easy to re import tracks to make them standard mp3s but it’s still a pain.
Apple Stock Up Today $2.58 Total To 7 Pm after hours 1,400,000 Shares ………………….Any buddy out there know Why???
King your are an idiot! You don’t use iTunes or and iPod so how do you think you know so much about it? Well you don’t have a clue. That’s pretty obvious by this article and your previous article.
Rog the Dodge wrote:
“Apple Stock Up Today $2.58 Total To 7 Pm after hours 1,400,000 Shares ………………….Any buddy out there know Why???”
Because people who buy and sell stock for a living liked what they heard Steve Jobs say in his post, they see what huge dividends this could pay for Apple, and they don’t listen to uninformed journalists like Brad King.
yellow reporting envious belittled restricted envious Stockholmed dependent microsoft whipping boy wa wa wa simple.
Steve is calling them all and them all is worried, I love it.
Or avoid all the hassels of buying music online:
Step 1. Buy a Mac.
Step 2. Buy a music CD (preferably not Clay Aiken)
Step 3. Insert CD into slot.
Step 4. Enjoy music.
Step 5. Sync it to your iPod.
No DRM!
If he thinks Jobs is now having some kind of change of heart, King must have been asleep during Apple’s “Rip, Mix, Burn” campaign a few years back when iTunes first came out – a campaign that first scared the record industry into getting off their dino-duffs in the first place.
…I’ve been a (flip and sarcastic) critic of his draconian view of digital-rights management… <– he doesn’t know DRM. I don’t know DRM. The music industry doesn’t know DRM, not to mention SONY. Born [sic ] Erik Thong [sic ] is completely clueless about DRM. Even Vista – DRM taken to the extreme – doesn’t know DRM. Microsoft spent six years and six billion dollars researching Digital-Rectal-Mismanagement – and it’s about to give them piles – I shit you not.
“King oughta change his name to “Hamburger” after undergoing MDN’s thorough grinding.”
Would he then be known as “Burger King”?
Hey, at least he didn’t quote a boob like Enderle!
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Wow. Rare form today.
-c
I been thinking about when iPod came out. If I remeber correct, SJ was not very supportive of DRM then. I’m sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.
When iPod came out, it was just another MP3/AAC player. No DRM code and no Windows support. Since Creative and others totally ignored the Mac market, it was the MP3 player for Mac users. Windows users had to watch Mac users enjoying the best MP3 player in the world with envy. Then came MusicBox (cannot remember the name of the software) that supported iPod on Windows. For a while Apple supported use of the non-iTune software and was willing to sell iPod to Windows users. They just needed to get FireWire interface for their PC to use it. Meanwhile several companies started download music business. I don’t think Nepster was one of them, since they were illigal music sharing software at the time. They used DRM version of WMP and left Mac users in cold (not that we missed it). I believe SJ tried to convince the Record Label to sell AAC encoded music without DRM at the time. He failed, so Apple bought FairPlay, a DRM software from a small software company and the Hell freezed over. Apple announced iTune for Windows and iTMS. Windows users had to wait few month, but they learned iTune with iTMS was coming to Windows.
That is how I remember the begining of iPod. So, did SJ had “change of heart?” I don’t think so. He was just waiting for the right time to push Record Labels into giving up on DRM. May be he will succeed this time.
It’s simple. Embrace and extinguish.
They embraced the least-sucky DRM model to allow them get into, and hopefully to own, the market. They did exactly that. They didn’t do it because they love DRM. DRM was a tool to use when needed, and now they’d like to throw it away.
Microsoft wants us to love DRM. They do it so they can create all these little revenue streams with their partners. The end user is really incidental.
Apple isn’t in business to sell you their partners technologies. They sell you a solution to a problem, in the most elegant way they can. DRM gets in the way of that.
So now it’s time to extinguish.
-c
MW: ‘usually’ (buy my music on stone tablets carved by cave men)
CM: And what’s that supposed to mean? Do you not *see* my Blackberry?
After a few decades of responsible press, we are now back to what press freedom used to be in the 17-, 18-, and early 19-hundreds: lies & gossip. The hayday of press responsibility was also the hayday of TV journalism, so many people think that today is the aberration. In fact, we are just going back to the BS-norm after a brief Camelot…
You know, I hate it when morons write articles, both in print and online. Because there are so many more competent people who can write a story that is both truthful and sensible who have a hard time getting their voices heard, and it ends up that these stupid ignoramuses can sit there and put out a story that butchers the English language, and is either totally biased or- clearly shows how unfamiliar the author is with whatever they’re talking about.
It’s pretty clear to most of us that Steve Jobs always leaned toward DRM-free music. He’s been quoted numerous times saying things like this:
“the way we expressed it to them is: Pick one lock — open every door. It only takes one person to pick a lock. Worst case: Somebody just takes the analog outputs of their CD player and rerecords it — puts it on the Internet. You’ll never stop that. So what you have to do is compete with it.
It’s obvious he doesn’t think DRM will ever work 100% of the time, and that should be evident to everyone- there’s just too many different workaroundsl too many variables. But he goes with DRM because it is the only way the record companies will give the iTunes Store their catalogs. This open letter pretty much solidifies that. So anyone who thinks this is just a knee-jerk idea or a “change of heart” has got to be insane.
In his letter, Steve Jobs is saying that Apple would embrace unprotected, DRM-free music in a second. He is explaining to people that Apple isn’t responsible for the DRM, and the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the record companies. He’s right. He also explains that opening up DRM would allow interoperability between music stores and jukeboxes, as well as the iPods and other MP3 players on the market. In short, Steve Jobs has pretty much answered every question or falsified every accusation that an analyst has put forth against Apple regarding the iPod and iTunes. At least, that’s the way I feel about it.
Naturally that moron working for Microsoft would say it’s not a good move, because Microsoft’s Zune is supposed to thrive on DRM. (A good idea would be to read this article, which explains how trying to trip up the consumer with copy protection- and later DRM- is something MS has been trying to push since the 90’s). That should also clear up why they’re so defensive about what was presented in Jobs’ letter on music. Lots of money was put into their DRM development, and they don’t want to see it go to waste (like it would’ve been the first time that happened).
Refreshing the page to see what I missed while writing this, I think “s” and ChrissyOne finished it up for me. And I also like LwB’s comment too!