I passed over this article about three times today before the implications sunk in (sometimes I'm just slow). Apple Computers - noted for its "Rip, Mix, Burn" advertising campaign a while back - has found a market niche (perhaps) in refusing to build digital use controls (aka digital rights management) into its computers. This means that Apple computers - unlike those produced and equipped by Dell, AMD and Microsoft - will not restrict what owners can do with content on their own computers. How do I know Apple's on the right track? "The music and movie industries have been attacking Silicon Valley and the technology companies for some time. But they've reserved particular venom for Apple among the major computing-platform organizations, and have been witheringly contemptuous of Apple's 'Rip, Mix, Burn' advertising..." But here's the flip side. The publishers' plan works only if they convince *all* manufacturers to build copy protection into their systems, so that the consumer has no choice. If even one company - Apple, say - refuses, the strategy fails. For the first time in my life, I'm thinking that an Apple may be my next purchase.
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