Aye, matey.

Plasticbag:

Apple is one hundred percent ahead of the game here - so far ahead, in fact - that it's completely unable to say it loud and clear. That's why they have to keep saying again and again, "Don't Steal Music", when everyone knows that they're only doing it to cover their own backs. The fact is that they know that however much money is being made through the selling of software, music and copyrighted material, the future isn't in protecting the trade routes - it's in making everyone a pirate.

Bonus link from BBC News: Efforts to stop music piracy 'pointless'. Thus spake P. Biddle, P. England, M. Peinadao and B. Willman, who researched and wrote The Darknet and the future of content distribution for Microsoft. It's a .doc file with a link from the DRM 2002 conference where it was presented. The link no longer downloads, I've noticed. (Perhaps your mileage will differ.) Richard Chlopan at Sysrick has some long quotes from it, but the permalinks don't work.

[The Doc Searls Weblog]

Yes, Apple is ahead of the curve but every member of the Content Cartel will try to stop it. I expect Apple to be shut out of much of the content in the future making it more likely it will go away and stop bugging the Content Cartel.  9:32:38 AM    

This Laptop's Too Hot to Handle. A Swiss scientist sears his private parts while typing on his portable computer. Could this take the 'lap' out of laptops? Get real, manufacturers say. [Wired News]

This is right up there with spilling your coffee at McDonald's.It sounds too much like an urban legend but could get a Darwin Award if true.  9:31:04 AM    

Sony Adds New Copyright Method to CD's in 2003 [Slashdot]

If so, I will not buy any CDs from a Sony label. You will not be able to listen to any of these if you have a Mac or a non-Windows machine. They may also not work in some car CDs or even some regular CD players used in home systems. But that is a small price to pay to prevent pirates, right? Much like the MovieLink story, if you are an innocent who gets caught in this 'business model' (say a Mac user) tough!! I thought the customer alwaqys came first. Not for some of these dinosaurs. And that is why they WILL eventually fail. But they may very well cause a lot of damage in the meantime, especially since the Content Cartel controls several important members of Congress.  9:16:40 AM    

Dimensions of communication. Jerry Michalski: "All the communication technologies we use -- telephones, newspapers, radio, IM, e-mail, mailing lists, TV, books -- are mired in historical cruft that keeps us from seeing clearly what to build next. It is useful to go to first principles, then reexamine whatever communication task you have at hand. So let me suggest the following basic dimensions of communication" [Werblog]

This material is from a Wiki site. These are the most anarchic, open forms of publishing on the Internet. Anyone can publish and can add material. It seems to work, probably because the only people who want to add material on a consistant basis are those with something to say. Some of the most interesting material io have found has been at Wikipedia,an encyclopedia created on a Wiki site.  9:04:37 AM    

Distrustworthy computing.

James Coates (in the Chicago Tribune & Elsewhere), in Promising Movielink bombs in debut:

In essence, Movielink took my American Express card, sold me a movie and when I tried to download it the company's software burped, ate my money (a paltry $1.99 for "Barbarella") and told me I was out of luck.

Repeated e-mails sent to the Movielink customer support site went unanswered, despite repeated auto-response promises of a prompt reply.

Not only did I get stiffed but I also learned the site offers a weak collection of only 76 or so movies, some of them current best sellers and others barely worthy of the clearance bin at Kmart.

I also wasn't particularly pleased to learn that if one were to actually succeed in downloading a movie, the Movielink software is set to delete the film file 24 hours after the picture is first started. If something comes up and you have to pause for too long, your paid-for film will self-destruct.

And if he had a Linux or a Mac box, he still wouldn't have his movie, but at least he'd still have his lost money and time. Movielink would have stopped him cold, right here:

Thank you for your interest in Movielink. We want you to take part in the powerful Internet movie rental experience that Movielink delivers; however, you currently do not meet our minimum system requirements. You will need to adjust the following:

You Need Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP

[The Doc Searls Weblog]

Glad I have a Mac. That way I don't have to wait hours, trying multiple times to download a movie I have paid for but never get to see. What a great business model. I am sure they have security set up so that if you get terminated during a downlaod, it makes it difficult to reconnect.. As a customer, I LOVE dealing with companies that view me as a crook, someone that should be grateful for the crumbs they hand out.. Of course, as a customer, I now make it a habit to do my best NOT to deal with comapnies that act like this. I can't do it all the time and MS's monopoly makes it harder all the time but anyway I can fight the Content Cartel, I will.  8:55:34 AM