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February 16, 2007
Macrovision Madness
Some of you may have come across Macrovisions Response to Steve Jobs which has every appearance of being composed by someone who is 90% stoned. My reading of it seemed to suggest that Macrovision (a buggy whip company) was asking Apple to give it (for free) proprietary encryption systems so that Macrovision could make oodles of money. The reasoning was that Macrovision (who have yet to achieve anything technically brilliant and effective) would be able to outperform Apple (who have a proven track record).
It is completely obvious that Macrovision did not understand (or intentionally misunderstod) Job's comments about DRM (namely that the world would be better without it).
A far more lucid translation of the entire affair can be found at Daring Fireball including this gem:
Macrovision: While your thoughts are seemingly directed solely to the music industry, the fact is that DRM also has a broad impact across many different forms of content and across many media devices. Therefore, the discussion should not be limited to just music.
Translation: We recognize that if getting rid of DRM works for the music industry, it’s going to open the eyes of executives in other fields, and it could unravel Macrovision’s entire business.
Macrovision: DRM increases not decreases consumer value
Translation: Up is down. Black is white.
Macrovision: I believe that most piracy occurs because the technology available today has not yet been widely deployed to make DRM-protected legitimate content as easily accessible and convenient as unprotected illegitimate content is to consumers.
Translation: I have, to date, succeeded in convincing the entertainment industry that DRM can stop piracy.
With apologies to Billy Joel, it's all about
Posted by Ozguru at February 16, 2007 06:00 PM
