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February 9, 2007

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The Economist vs. Steve Jobs

Posted Feb. 9, ’07, 12:22 PM PT by Pat Nakajima
Category | Apple » News

The EconomistBack when I was just a young boy in high school, I read The Economist almost religiously, and many of my lunchtime debates may have featured quotes ripped directly from the text. I could usually bank on the fact that while it may be “one of the few publications” that Henry Kissinger reads regularly, my high school chums probably did not. I eventually stopped reading the magazine when we started debating more important things, like the merits of latter Simpsons episodes when disregarding the series’ impossible to match earlier years. Yesterday though, one of The Economist’s articles caught my eye.

In the article Music wants to be free, the author writes that Steve Jobs only wrote the piece in order to try to get the European regulators “off his back.” And also to try to ride the wave of anti-DRM feelings that are sweeping the market, and even beginning to form that preliminary stages on a DRM revolution. The author believes that Steve Jobs wants to look like the captain of this movement, even if his company is the primary opponent. A smart move on his part, no?

In my experience, DRM has been more bark than bite. Still, there are a lot of people who are making a lot of noise about it, and it was nice to see Apple take a stand. A stand that entailed doing nothing and waiting for the labels to take action perhaps, but nonetheless, a stand. Since I have no opinions either way, I want to leave it to you, the readers, to really tell me if you think that the Thoughts on Music was written to serve Mr. Jobs, Apple, or perhaps even the anti-DRM movement as a whole. Let’s hear about it.


3 Comments

Donn said:

I think SJ posted his missive for a few reasons.

1. Bill Gates sure wasn't going to do it. So he had little to lose there.

2. He feels the iTMS/iPod can easily weather competition in the marketplace and come out ahead.

3. Yes, he gets to look on the surface like some kind of hero.

4. He wants to get Europe/anti-DRM consumers off his back.

5. Related to 4., he really does want to change the world, and he really believes freeing digitally distributed music from DRM is a part of that change.

I agree.

February 9, 2007 1:11 PM
GCarden said:

Not to be nit-picky, but I think you mean later Simpsons episodes instead of latter.

February 9, 2007 2:42 PM
fletcher said:

I thought Jobs' essay was very interesting.

If you think of Apple as a company whose mission is to solve problems for their customers (and get paid for the effort of course) then their use of DRM makes sense. Apple found a way to provide downloadable music for iPod and iTunes users. The requirement for doing so was to use DRM on the music.

I see this as a contrast to Microsoft. Apple uses DRM as a means to an end and uses as little as possible. Microsoft seems to want to create an end-to-end DRM universe in which all data is tagged and controlled.

Through this letter, Apple has signalled that they see DRM as a means to an end and not a necessary component of future technology. It shows that Apple thinks of DRM pragmatically rather than as an inevitability.

February 9, 2007 2:59 PM

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