Hilary Rosen’s At It Again
Hilary Rosen wants Apple to open up the iPod to other people’s music stores. What a tired, old chorus.
Why don’t the Hilary Rosens of the world rail against Microsoft’s lock on the Office format, DVD encryption or — while we’re talking about digital music — Windows Media DRM?
These are restrictive formats that prevent universal interoperability, too, but apparently Apple is the only company with a moral duty to roll over and play dead the instant they enjoy any success. After all, conventional wisdom dictates that Apple can’t possibly succeed.
When the market chooses Windows (”chooses” being a term I would use loosely in this context), capitalism and convenient theories of market forces are proven right, and all is well with the world. When the market chooses iPod/iTunes, something is clearly wrong. Hilary Rosen must think that consumers are too dumb to be allowed to choose something based purely on its own merits. I wonder why that is?
Keep in mind that while Rosen is proposing opening up the iPod to other online stores, they all use a single digital rights management platform; Microsoft’s.
What’s so compelling about Wal-Mart’s online store? Or PureTracks? They force me to use an operating system, a web browser and crappy portable players I don’t want to use. Does anyone remember any antitrust convictions related to Rosen’s white knight? I don’t see the attraction — or the championing of consumer choice in this proposed alternative.
Maybe if Apple had illegally coerced everyone into loving their iPods people like Rosen would be happier.
