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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, August 23, 2004

iTunes or MyTunes?

This Blog sits at the: "Apple can violate my digital rights any time they want. There's an old joke about bicycles: that we don't really own them, we just rent them from the thieves. This somehow summons the truth about homeownership: that we don't really own homes either, we just share them with the bank ... This does nothing to dim our sense of ownership. We are outraged at the theft of a bicycle. We would be astonished to find bank executives having lunch on our patio, ('actually, if you read the contract, you will see we own this part of your house-the whole yard actually. Hank's gone to get his barbeque.') ... No, as we understand and feel it, we own these things as if ownership were outright and in perpetuity ... Apple gives us qualified access to the songs we download from iTunes ... Apple can actually change our rights to songs retroactively."

So with all the seemingly intelligent ownership comparisons here, I started posting this thinking I was going to agree with him.

But I don't. At all.

First, there are huge factual errors here: Real both offers song purchases and subscriptions. But he misses out on some of the most obvious points of all. People can, in fact, own homes outright. Just because that has never happened in his experience doesn't mean that people don't do it (and those that don't are very clear on the role of the bank, believe me).

Also, people are very much comfortable with leasing, and not buying, merchandise and services. We do it with cars, probably more often than we buy them because of more favorable monthly terms. We do it with rental properties. We do it with cable services, and so forth. No one who watches a movie on HBO thinks they "own" it, for example.

Finally, he misses the biggest point of all: Music isn't different. It just isn't. Music is something some people consume regularly, others only occassionally, but it's not the be-all, end-all that he makes it out to be. It's not more important than personal photos, videos, or other memories. It's not more or less important than our favorite movies or books. Making the assumption that music is somehow special--and therefore deserving of different rules than other content is so obviously wrongheaded, it almost doesn't deserve the arguement. One of the things people have a hard time doing is seeing beyond what's important to them and seeing the bigger picture. Different people have different needs, wants, and desires. Different people see things differently. And different people care about some things more than others. Yeah, some people love music. But for most people, it's simply not the most important thing in life, and one day, this author will realize that. Hopefully, it won't be overly traumatic.

[ Posted at 9:24 AM | Permalink ]