Comments on: Steve Jobs: Having Balls When Its Convenient

By: GUS

GUS — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 00:01:24 +0000

Jobs is no saint, but do you really believe the iPods is a success or continues to be a success because of Fairplay (DRM)? Get a clue. Jobs is indeed attempting to clarify the argument and issues around iTunes and DRMs. Balls has nothing to do with it.

By: KAZMAN

KAZMAN — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:25:33 +0000

“First off — it takes NO balls to make a public denouncement of DRM when you’ve ALREADY established iTunes as the pre-eminent brand in downloadable music. If they WERE to lift DRM from iTunes tomorrow do you think iTunes would lose much music?”

Did you read the letter? iTunes would not lose much music, but Apple would lose lawsuits and a ton of money. In my book, doing what you advocate is not called having balls. It’s called being irresponsibly stupid.

“And the fact that you *didn’t* makes me believe that you either don’t hold those opinions about the evils of DRM as close to your heart as you say you do. Or, if you do, you only hold them when its convenient for you.”

What would that have accomplished? Again, running your mouth without the proper leverage is being irresponsibly stupid. Do you know that Steve Jobs didn’t try to negotiate a non-DRM solution to the record labels? Trying to turn this into a good-vs-evil issue is foolish. Steve Jobs was making a logical (and financially sound) argument.

Finally, have you used Mac products for any length of time? Do you know that the vast majority of Apple’s software is sold without registration keys, unlike Microsoft’s products? Do you know that Apple gave away system updates in its early days for free? Do you know that Apple is a contributor in today’s open-source community?

By: R Boylin

R Boylin — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:10:26 +0000

Apple’s iPod was a year on the market before iTunes Store was on the internet. iPod sales ramped up rapidly once iTunes ran on Windows. Most iPod content is ripped as mp3 tracks from the non-DRM CDs the music companies sell.

The average iPod contains about 20 iTunes Store downloads. How can $20 in content drive you to not buy a Zune? Jobs lobbied hard for a more lenient DRM and simpler pricing than Microsoft’s affiliates. iPods and iTunes are an “experience” that sells iPods regardless of online music sales. If it’s competitor’s online stores’ music played on iPods and there was no iTunes Store Apple would still dominate the market.

By: MacDaddy

MacDaddy — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:36:26 +0000

The spelling and grammatical errors add a lot to this article. Are they indicative of the content? Maybe it’s just a Web 2.0 thing. I dunno.

By: Martin Edic

Martin Edic — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:42:34 +0000

And why wouldn’t he offer up a stance that Apple can profit from? In a public company the CEO has to look out for the interests of his shareholders first. Of course removing DRM gets Apple out of a lot of legal messes in Europe but he is right- it is the RIAA who has been suing customers repeatedly and adding draconian DRM schemes (remember those Sony rootkits?) to their products.
Vilifying Jobs for clearly explaining the issues in a way that the music companies will have a hard time refuting is ridiculous. Apple will benefit but so will the rest of us.

Respectfully: You’re wrong.

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:19:06 +0000

I dig Job’s approach to most things. And he does one thing really well – spin everything to protect Apple’s image. He’s great at it. Really, Look how appealing he made a $600 cell phone recently. I was salivating after watching the keynote for iPhone.

Jobs has always had self (and Apple) interests at the forefront. It’s what’s made him successful. And he can go on saying what he’s saying about DRM because of iTunes.

In my opinion, the man is a marketing genius and he taked advantage of every opportunity he can to give Apple an edge.

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:48:35 +0000

You got one thing right– he’s got balls now. More balls than it takes for you to bash him based on your own lack of knowledge about the situation.

Steve also had balls back before the itunes store when he released the original itunes whose sole purpose was to rip CDs and allowed people to burn mix CDS. He also had the balls to go up against the record industry back when everyone was still saying Apple was down for the count and hold the line at $0.99 for songs and get great rights — much better than other online music stores.

I’m tired of seeing ignorant windows weenies bash apple because they think that itunes is a “monopoly” and that apple is forcing DRM on people.

Nothing could be further from the truth– the iTunes store covers teh cost of itunes development, and its whole purpose for existance is to sell more iPods. Apple will continue to sell more ipods even without DRM.

Jobs has the balls to make a commitment like he did here– and he has called your bluff. Weenies can still bash him out of ignorance, but increasingly it is you who are going to look ball-less.