Steve Jobs: The Source of All Evil

Hey, readers, it's stupid ZDNet blog post day!

Oh, let's not kid ourselves. Every day is stupid ZDNet blog post day!

But how stupid is this one? Really stupid. Because now Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is blaming Steve Jobs for the DCMA DMCA [Note: the Macalope always gets that damn acronym wrong. It's possible, however, that Kingsley-Hughes also believes Jobs is to blame for the Defense Contract Management Agency.].

It seems that Steve Jobs is looking for a new way to make money from consumers (Steve Jobs looking for a way to make money, that's not news I hear you say ... read on ...).

Oh, the Macalope stands corrected. Steve Jobs is not only to blame for the DCMA DMCA, he's also to blame for capitalism.

This time his idea is that Hollywood should start selling "premium" DVDs that contain an iTunes-compatible version of the movie for an extra few bucks.

Wait, who's idea was that again? Let's look at the source -- a New York Times blog post -- Kingsley-Hughes links to:

More interestingly perhaps, the studios are hoping to create [emphasis the Macalope's] "premium" versions of DVDs that include a copy of the movie that can easily be put on an iPod (and presumably a laptop with iTunes or an Apple TV).

Spin, magic wheel of bullshit! Spin!

Kingsley-Hughes pompously proclaims:

It seems that fair use is OK in the eyes of Steve Jobs, as long as it comes at a price.

And its seems disingenuous blog posts are OK in the eyes of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, as long as it comes at the expense of Apple or Steve Jobs.

In fairness, Techdirt also misreads it in exactly the same way -- transposing "the studios" for "Steve Jobs" -- and Cory Doctorow takes TechDirt at its word, so Kingsley-Hughes isn't the only one.

Jackassery, of course, loves company.

[tomreeves]

ZDNet is the competition. On the other hand, nothing worth challenging is said on C|Net, I imagine. Well except perhaps the McQuivey thing. At least the Macalope could fork his name or something. I'm sure that McQuivey isn't hard of thinking, but he did insinuate that iTunes was failing miserably or something. I wrote a pithy snark on my blog (pwnership.com). Actually, two. And remember, Spanx is the new Snark.

I wanted to post here because of my fondness for Macalope. Tastes like chicken. Or so I am told. Kinda like that torrent thingie. How does that one go?

[Orenge]

ZDnet is PART of C-Net, I believe.

[monkyhead]

Steve Jobs ate my dingo!

[Jemaleddin]

I really REALLY don't think you can blame Steve Jobs for the idea of putting an ITMS-DRM'ed version of movies on DVDs because THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. Seriously.

The whole point of the ITMS DRM for movies and songs is that the entire file has been encoded especially for each person that downloads it so that only they (and the devices they authorize with their account details) can play it. How the hell are they going to encode a completely different file on each DVD if they're going to protect it with DRM when they make the things on molds? You can't have a unique file on every DVD if they're all identical!

The only way this idea of having a version of the file that works on iPods on the DVD makes any sense if it's in a non-DRM format. Right? So there goes the entire argument! Poof!

Look, Steve Jobs is no Steve Wozniak when it comes to understanding technology, but I have to believe he understands his own products at least as well as I do, right? Right?

[Jemaleddin]

(Wow the typos and lousy sentence structure - no more comments until I have some caffeine.)

[Macalope]

You could have a FairPlay universal unlock so that it plays only on FairPlay devices. You'd still be able to share it around to other people who have iPods, iTunes, Apple TVs, etc. It just wouldn't be viewable on a Zune or any other non-Apple device or software.

[IHateRegistering2Comment]

The the unique ID that makes the file only playable by the purchaser is added to the DRM by iTunes, NOT the iTunes Store. In other words, if they were to do this, and updated version of iTunes could be made that applies the unique ID to the already FairPlay'd movie from the DVD when it's added to iTunes, just as if it was downloaded from the iTunes Store.

[Ian Eisenberg]

The fact that Cory Doctorow doesn't take the time to actually check facts on this is scary.
I used to have a lot more respect for him but he has become such a flaming "freeper" (in the software sense, not the religious sense) that he jumps on the big guys first without checking to see if, "hey they might actually be doing something not bad here.

[jayayarr]

Mr. Horned One Sir,

By chance are you referring to the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act)? Or did you actually intend to reference the Defense Contract Management Agency? (Interesting possibility for conspiracy theorists here...)

Otherwise, excellent post as usual.

[Macalope]

Arg. The Macalope always gets that acronym wrong!

[Jemaleddin]

Your Universal Fairplay idea sounds find except that it does nothing to prevent piracy, since almost everyone has iPods to begin with, and just about everyone has iTunes.

[monkyhead]

Damn Cows Make Alkanes

[Macalope]

Dumb Columnists Mate with Alpacas!