Uncle Steve takes a Magical Mystery Sledgehammer to the RIAA Part One: The Wind-up. . .

Today, Steve Jobs posted an open letter on Apple.com basically decrying Digital Rights Managment (DRM). From the column, which is a fascinating read:

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

While an unprecedented statement from a CEO in its own right, I believe this is just the opening salvo in a larger move.

Check this out. Lemme drop some pure rampant speculation on y'all:

I think Steve's preparing the playing field for his big move. He's coming out in a big, public, P.R.-friendly way against DRM because he's about to announce that Apple Inc.(or even Steve on a personal level) has bought Apple Corps., and will license the Beatles catalogue exclusively to iTunes, DRM-free. This announcement will possibly come on 20 Feb, at Apple's rumored media event.

I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it until I'm proven otherwise. Given the recent and unprecedented capitulation by Apple Corps. in their lawsuit against Apple Inc., alleged money issues for Paul McCartney stemming from his infamous divorce, and Steve's flaunting Beatles tracks in his iPhone keynote (apparently without recrimination from Apple Corps.), it's within the bounds of rational speculation that something like this could happen.

If Steve Jobs can pull off buying the Beatles' catalogue, and selling it on iTunes DRM-free, it would be a HUGE coup against DRM, and a big ol' slap in the face to the Big Four record companies and the RIAA. It would show them that you can take music that's been available for free in the internet forever, and sell it without having to resort to DRM. It would validate Jobs' original rationale for the iTMS, namely that all else being equal, although illegal downloads will always be there, people will pay for 'decent' quality, stable downloads, and album art. It might also spur them to eliminate DRM from their own music, in order to remain competitive in the digital space.

Again, this is pure speculation, but it makes sense, on the surface. I'd love to hear what others think about this.

Possible Cure for Cancer... and it's even Open Source!

According to this New Scientist article, a team at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, have found that dichloroacetate (DCA) kills lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells.

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.
It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

Not only is this a very promising new direction in cancer treatment, it's also one where pharmaceutical company profiteering will have little effect. See, DCA cannot be patented, as it has been in use for many years. On top of that, it's dirt-cheap to manufacture. So there is very little profit margin in this drug, as compared to other patented designer drugs that can me marketed and sold at a premium. That's the good news. The bad news is that because there is little incentive for profit in selling this drug, there is little interest on the part of big pharma to subsidize the clinical tests needed to really see if this is effective in real cancer patients. This seems like the kind of thing that Bill & Melinda would totally go for. Let's see if it pans out.

The Pirate Bay Strikes Again! or: I'm moving to Sealand.

After successfully fighting off the RIAA, and coming to the defense of Allofmp3.com, the Pirate Bay is now trying to raise money to buy the microcountry of Sealand, off the British coast. Ostensibly, this would place the Pirate Bay in a sovereign country where no intellectual property laws are recognized, therefore allowing the 'Bay to keep doing what it does best without the constant shadow of another raid or whatnot looming over their horizons.

The Pirate Bay is accepting donations, in exchange for citizenship if the deal goes through. If they can't raise enough money, they say they'll buy some other island, and declare it a sovereign nation.

If ever there was a nation I would want to defend, this would be it. Yarr, mateys.

Apple v. Cisco: The fight for the iPhone.

Now, who didn't see this coming? Yesterday, Cisco sued Apple over the iPhone trademark, ostensibly defending their new 'iPhone' branded VOIP Phone. For those not so pathologically glued to the internet as me, Cisco got shit from the blogosphere for their iPhone launch in early December, especially as it was linked to an Engadget iPhone prediction which turned out to be one of the worst off-season April Fool's jokes in recent times. Cisco has owned the trademark for 'iPhone' since 2000, when they acquired it as part of a company they bought., so Apple is knowingly in the wrong here.

I could see Apple try to make a case out of the fact that an 'iAnything' is derivative from the iMac, iPod, etc., but still it's a very weak case, and I doubt it would hold up in court. No matter what happens in the courtroom, though, Cisco lost the PR battle when they released a product with the iPhone name, knowing full well that it would either a) be confused with an Apple product (therefore underhandedly infusing their lackluster VOIP Phone with some Apple mojo), or b) possibly lead to a legal dispute with Apple over the name. The fact that they held the trademark makes no difference from a real-world perspective; any marketing person could have told Cisco that using the iPhone name was a bonehead move. iAnything is linked to Apple in consumer's eyes.

That being said, I wouldn't put it past Apple to have simply come out with the iPhone name as a placeholder until June (sort of like the iTV), when -after keeping the iPhone in the spotlight through a highly publicized legal squabble with Cisco while they get FCC approval- they would unveil the real name for the device's actual launch in June. From a mindshare perspectiive, after enough time (like say, six months), they could call it the iTurd if they wanted to, and people would probably still refer to it as the iPhone out of habit. Who knows?

As far as alternate names, 'ApplePhone' sounds ok. Not as nice a ring to it as 'iPhone', but good enough. However, think about the rest of the picture, at least from a marketing/advertising perspective. [Apple Logo]Phone would kick ass in text, just like the new [Apple Logo]TV. Kind of a mouthful, but it does wonders for branding your living room. Actually [Apple]Phone rolls off the tongue better than [Apple]TV, I think.

Big Brother much?

These new posters outside of London Tube stations are disconcerting, to say the least. Considering London is one of the cities with the most public surveillance, one has to wonder whether the creators of this campaign have ever read 1984. . . Orwell was so right, he was just a little too premature.

Welcome to the future. Try not to get arrested.

"Say, that's not a moon, it's a space station!"

AT&T is back, after having received approval from the FCC to reclaim BellSouth in a mega-merger. Now the U.S. Government has a one-stop shop for all its illegal phone tapping needs. Rejoice.

The thing that worries me more than even that is that they got this merger through on the vow of net neutrality. However, memories are short. AT&T and Bellsouth were both companies that vowed to lay fiber networks to the home in exchange for tax and regulatory concessions in the '90s, and have yet to deliver on that promise. The new AT&T has 'promised' to uphold net neutrality for the next two years. After that, barring any permanent legislation to the effect, it's anyone's game.

So, enjoy your Skype, your BitTorrent, and your YouTube while it lasts.

Behold the new Death Star.

The chalwa in the breadbasket

From the LA Times [link]. For years, activists in the marijuana legalization movement have claimed that cannabis is America's biggest cash crop. Now they're citing government statistics to prove it.

One of these days, the governments of the world will finally realize that they can make so much more bank off of this stuff if they de-criminalize and tax the hell out of it. Frankly, I don't know if that would be better or worse for the current ganja consumer, but at the very least it should free up some prision space.

A fella can dream, can't he? In the meantime, I'll be spending next week in Amsterdam, pretending that the so-called Drug War doesn't exist.