Apple Chastises Music Industry, Jumps in Bed With Hollywood

Image credit: HDTV Info Europe

One of the most popular and controversial things ever written by Steve Jobs was his "Thoughts on Music" letter shown to everyone and directed at the music industry. In it he laid out his vision for a DRM-free music marketplace and its implications for the industry and for consumers. Many took this as a signal that Jobs was about to move iTunes into a DRM free monster, but the record industry hasn't cooperated as planned, and despite the bravado of Jobs, he has continued to allow their music to stay in the store whether it's DRM free or and now we're finding out that Apple has gotten even further into bed with the entertainment industry, but instead of the music industry, it's Hollywood.

Recently many customers who happily purchased Apple's latest line of notebook computers are finding out that Apple is just as in bed with entertainment as they've ever been. Customers who purchased iTunes movies in High Def were treated to error messages when plugging their new shiny laptops into displays that didn't support DPCP (DisplayPort Copy Protection). The outrage over this has been going on for a few days. Earlier this week Apple issued a patch for QuickTime that would stop the grief for standard definition movies, but offered nothing in the way of relief for High Def purchases and rentals.

The obvious question is why?

I'm not asking that in a legal or philosophical way, but more a common sense way. Assuming I bought or rent a movie on my new MacBook Pro, what difference should it make if I watch the movies on the built-in screen or the externally attached one? Aside from the utter paranoia that someone will somehow start pilfering movies utilizing the analog hole, there's no logical reason for this except for the fact that Hollywood straddled Apple with this copy protection as a condition of having high def content on the iTunes Store. This is where Steve Jobs and Apple have utterly failed. Steve Jobs has consistently said (keyword = said) that he's against DRM on music but he's made no such demands of Hollywood, an industry he has a vested interest in as the largest shareholder in Disney. Instead of doing what's right for the customer, Apple has taken a stance that's arguably diamtercially opposed to the customer's best interests.

I'm willing to accept that DRM on movies is a necessary evil. Frankly, if it's not terribly restrictive, I can accept reasonable copy protection on digital downloads. Does it make me happy? Nope, but I'm willing to accept reasonable DRM as a cost of doing business (in a manner of speaking). When you take into account what is going on with Apple's notebook line, a line is crossed between being necessary and unintrusive and being punitive to those who purchase content.

I should note that, in reality, none of this even affects me. I have an AppleTV hooked up to my 40" Samsung LCD TV through HDMI. I never hook an external monitor up to my MacBook Pro to watch any kind of content, and I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over whether or not my notebook will bark at me when I hook it up to my TV. But that's me. I also find it perfectly reasonable for someone who doesn't have an AppleTV to want to hook their laptop up to their television and watch a movie, and if they own it and the computer they bought it on is present with the movie already loaded on the hard drive, why shouldn't they be able to view it on the screen they choose?

In essence, this would be the same as Steve Jobs saying to Apple customers that since the iPod Touch has a set of speakers, you're only allowed to listen to music on the headphones but all other sounds can be played on the speakers. If you think that sounds ridiculous, think about it in reverse with movies; Apple's essentially doing the same thing.

I'm a fan of Apple, but that doesn't make everything they do right, and this smacks of being completely and wholeheartedly wrong. For all the bluster about Apple and how they stand up for their customers, they let their customers' best interests take a back seat in this case and that, as far as I'm concerned, is unforgiveable.

Vincent Ferrari is an Apple fan, videoblogger, blogger, writer, and all-around geek from the Bronx. He works in the IT Department of a cellular phone company that shall not be named, and lives in a very comfortable apartment with his lovely wife, two lovely cats, three Macs, two iPhones, and God-knows-how-many iPods of varying age.