Thoughts on Steve
In case you missed it, Steve Jobs publicly called for record labels to stop demanding Digital Rights Management restrictions on music. He explained the situation of distributing media in a digital age with candor and rationality. As the CEO of Apple, the company that sells the vast majority of the portable music players and digital downloads in the world, his opinion matters. alot.
Jobs is absolutely correct. Media creators cannot continue to treat their customers like felons through the use of Digital Rights Management restrictions. I opined on this before.
However, this issue is larger than not being able to play songs purchased through the iTunes Store on some sub-standard portable music player or on my non-Apple cell phone. Our ability to freely think as a society is diminishing because of intellectual property laws that favor today’s corporate profits over tomorrow’s technological advancements.
Steve is already in my personal pantheon. His message today only validates his position. The next step is to urge Congress to create like it’s 1790.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 20:30 and is tagged fair use. 