Some might call me an Apple fanboy, so naturally I wanted to check out what I might be lamenting. Richard Bullwinkle (moose and squirrel?) begins his piece like the beginning of an Appleholics Anonymous meeting.
I’m an Apple fanboy. I love Apple products because they are sexy and cool. Oh, I recognize my behavior is sycophantic, but I love my Apple toys. I use them myself and give them as gifts. To date I have owned at least one of every iPod, several Mac computers, and yes, I carry an iPhone.
But once we’ve got this lead in, he starts on this rant about the DRM in iTunes being incompatible with devices other than iTunes (despite an already apparent shift across the industry away from DRM all together). I was expecting an argument for Windows Media DRM, but we all know better than that because there are several variants that don’t work even with all Windows Media DRM devices. Plus, there’s the fact that, you know, Microsoft has never brought it to Mac OS X.
Instead, he argues for standards, vague, unspecified standards. By the end, he’s waxing about a vinyl copy of Yellow Submarine. It left me very confused until I read the “Biography” line (or if I’d paid attention to the description in the thumbnail photo).
Richard Bullwinkle is chief evangelist for Macrovision.
WTH? Since when did CNET lease out column space to advertisers? Once you know the source, then entire point of the column becomes crystal clear. “Someone please buy Macrovision’s latest copy protection. It’s good for consumers, we swear!” He attacks Fairplay DRM in order to bolster his employer’s products.
Attention advertising departments: you can now buy columns from CNET to fill with your propaganda. Maybe they can use the extra cash to buy some integrity.
After the whole GameSpot debacle, who would really be surprised that the mothership is a haven for undiscolsed advertorials?
Did he include that lovely bit about how you could buy one copy for your regular home, one for your summer home, and one for your yacht? That was the highlight of the Macrovision response to Jobs's "Thoughts on Music."
the "perspective" columns at cnet have always been a place of company shills and other propagandists, be it the RIAA, MPAA or other self serving org. good times
I did the worst thing you can do to a technology site that's going downhill like CNET...I unsubscribed from their RSS feed. Take that advert shills!