Whores and fan dancers-the media
I am constantly amazed by the arrogance of the media. As we move into an era where the plunk of every new digital gadget placed on store shelves is another tap, tap, tap cracking the shell of content protection that big media has extruded around their precious. Ipods, Tivos, USB thumb drives, DVD burners--what do they all have in common? Extracting and distributing proprietary content.
Steve Jobs, Apple's erstwhile CEO, yesterday called for the death of DRM, or at least on iTunes. He's like the cadaver procuring body snatching villager who sees the armed crowd heading to the castle, grabs a torch and leaps to the front of the mob, screaming "Death to Dr. Frankenstein!" He knows that content control is doomed and wants to be on record now as leading the charge.
The movie people make a little noise, but don't seem to care too much. The music people are the squeaky wheel that needs to get greased, and hopefully in a highly unpleasant way and in a painful location. They sue housewives, use lawyers the way Homer Simpson uses doughnuts and generally destroys what little credibility remains in their industry.
The print people however, have flamed out in their own unique way. They are so smitten with advertising revenue, that many print periodicals have rendered their online versions unusable.
Take the Washington Post, for instance, my home town newspaper. First they won't let you read past the front page unless you lie creatively on their demographic signup form. And they don't just want to know your name and occupation--they ask for blood type, which side you dress your trousers and your opinion on who made the better captain; Kirk or Picard. Then after you've given them the information (please don't tell them the truth!) they occasionally throw in ads that obscure what you're reading. Yep. Ads that pop up and block the screen, jump pages that you have to look at before the main content and unless I'm greatly mistaken, audio that comes out of nowhere and talks to you when you're trying to read an article.
The Post is hardly the only media whore, but they do stand on a very visible corner and as such set the standard for the others. The music distributers need to get the hell out of the way and let the artists interact with their customer base. Print media needs to come up with a better business model than playing Gypsy Rose Lee with their content, forcing readers to squint for a look at the naughty bits past the fluttering of the advertising fans.
Posted on February 08, 2007
