'This Is War'
Should the computer industry protect Hollywood from digital theft? The guns are drawn.
Nothing has stirred up Hollywood lately like Ted Waitt's talented Holstein. Waitt is CEO of Gateway, the nation's fourth-largest PC manufacturer, and the cow is his company mascot. It's the Holstein's spots you see on Gateway packaging. Lately, though, Waitt has been using his sidekick to attack the entertainment industry. In a TV commercial, Waitt is driving down the highway in an 18-wheeler at dusk, with the cow riding shotgun. Waitt shoves a homemade CD into the truck's sound system. Out comes a hip-hop version of Gordon Lightfoot's 1974 classic "Sundown." Waitt raps along as he steers the big rig, bobbing his head to the beat.
"Hey, B, what's the deal?" Waitt asks the cow.
On cue, the Holstein starts rhyming like a bovine Jay-Z: "Sometimes I rap slow, sometimes I rap quick..."
Sounds innocent enough. But as Waitt and cow head off into the sunset, viewers are directed to Gateway's Website, where they can download the song free. There, they are urged to oppose a Hollywood-backed bill in the U.S. Senate intended to end the unlawful distribution of copyrighted music and movies. "Have you seen this??" asks an e-mail circulating among movie-studio and record-company executives. "This is WAR!" [Fortune via Ars Technica]
I know, I know, I hit this subject so often. It makes me made to see a dinosaur industry try to kill innovation. Remember that this industry has killed, or tried to kill technologies in the past. The problem is that this is an industry that is prone to extremes. In the end the Entertainment Industry had better get on board and figure out how they are going to move forward. History does not favor the stupid...mj
9:40:49 AM 
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