Sure Steve Jobs’ is being lauded as a giant killer and hero for music consumers in his call for the death of copy-protection technology — aka DRM – in an essay he posted Tuesday. But it also may have been one of the cheapest marketing ploys in recent memory. From Thomas Hawk’s Digital Collection:
"Everyone is falling all over themselves with how cool and hip and right Steve Jobs is. It's pretty simple from a marketing and PR perspective and it worked… So why the PR push now? Because the iPhone is coming out very shortly and Apple wants even more of a glow than they already have."
So far Jobs’ call is falling on deaf and angry ears in the offices of the RIAA and the big record labels. And Jobs’ plan may not be all that altruistic. In fact, he may only be protecting Apple from European lawsuits.
Or maybe Jobs is trying to escape contracts with the big record companies that some say are already advantageous for Apple. From Valleywag:
"Is Jobs just a plebe-happy partisan who wants bottom-up change? Or has he lost patience with cracking his own contractual shackles in regular dealings with record companies, and so seeks an end run via grassroots groundswell?"
Oddly enough, Jobs' essay ignores another medium that seems to be popular for online pirates – video. It's an odd omission, given that Jobs also sits on the board of Disney. From Cult of Mac:
"Maybe — and I know this is a big assumption, but just maybe this isn't about DRM for music and DRM for video. Maybe it's about Steve's relationships to both industries and the overall health of the industries… Either way, it seems a little bit weak of Steve to go for the jugular in music and pretend that DRM isn't an issue in the video market. Or even acknowledge that the video market exists."
Want more perspective? Here's another great compilation of opinion from folks who are chiming in.
