Ed responded kindly to my Lot's of People Seem Up In Arms About Sony Copy Protection post with It’s not about copy protection.

He's totally right -- it's not about copy protection.

It's about theft.

Ed is an author by trade. He makes a living selling words printed on a page. If he can't earn money writing great books because people steal them he will find another way to make a living. I'm pretty sure he is married. His wife will not allow him to not make a living.

So, in response to his wife's need for him to make a living...

• His most recent book is only available for the general public via purchase at a store (virtual like Amazon or brick and mortar like Borders). The store has a lock on the front door. Even though I personally wouldn't dream of stealing Ed's book the store still has a lock on the front door. Even though I'm not a criminal, the store is treating me like one.
• When I purchase Ed's book I agree to at least two 'End User License Agreements'. The first is the store policy governing any purchase I make. The second is the terms and conditions of the legal tender I use to pay for the book (cash, credit card, debit card, bartered chickens). If I don't agree, I can't walk out of the store with Ed's book. Did I read all of the fine print in those EULAs?
• When I open up Ed's book I find something like the following in the very early pages: 'Copyright © 2005 by Someone. All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.' Even after purchasing this book, I don't appear to have any rights except to read it silently in its original form unless I want to take extra steps to get permission. I wasn't explicitly made aware of that by the store or any store employee prior to purchase.
• 'The printed book is difficult and expensive to copy, and it’s nearly impossible to make a copy that looks and works like the original.' He has made it extremely difficult (but not impossible) for me to make a backup copy of the book.
• Ed's book installs knowledge into my head without 'providing an easy and straightforward way for me to completely undo the changes if I so choose.'

Yep, Ed Bott has Analog Rights Management (ARM™) protecting his copyrighted material.

How nefarious!

I'm still gonna buy his books, though. That is my choice.

Ed has chosen to include a PDF version of the book on the CD included with your purchase. It doesn't have any form of DRM. That was his choice.

People are all abuzz about Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far by Mark Russinovich. Ed Bott has posted no less than 4 entries on the subject alone in about 8 hours, the latest being Is Sony Violating The Law?

A couple of thoughts...

1) Why aren't people attacking folks who steal digital content (music, TV shows, movies, etc.) with the same zeal and passion.

2) Why has Ed picked a delivery system for his latest professional writing with such unfriendly DRM and obvious disrespect for my fair use rights?

Enjoy...

http://www.download.com/Hotmail-Plus-Reader-for-Media-Center/3000-11444_4-10455037.html?tag=lst-0-1

I'm getting a good many hits from http://www.macgeneration.com today referencing the Apple Front Row stuff I posted. Many folks have been been pointing me to translation sites -- I've not found those to be much help since they do a literal word-for-word tranlation. For example...

'Depuis sa présentation, FrontRow suscite beaucoup d’interrogations. À sa façon, Apple se place sur le marché des media-center. Là où la société ne fait pas comme les autres, c’est qu’au lieu d’intégrer ce logiciel qui irait si bien au Mac mini, elle le propose avec l’iMac. Steve Jobs a beau avoir fait un pas en arrière, il reste persuadé que le centre du hub numérique doit être l’ordinateur.'

...becomes this after automatic translation...

'Since its presentation, FrontRow causes many interrogations. At its way, APPLE is placed on the market of the media-center. Where the company does not make like the others, it is that instead of integrating this software which would go so well to mini Mac, it proposes it with the iMac. Steve Jobs took a step in vain behind, it remains persuaded that the center of the numerical hub must be the computer.'

Somehow, I don't think the original message is coming through here. Although I admit some of the comments are really, really funny when run through auto translation...

'If it is true that the media center introduces with the iMac G5 is a logical evolution of the numerical hub to the APPLE sauce, its ease of use is a heritage of the iPod.'

The BBC launched their experience in the UK Online Spotlight today, marking a total of 100 experiences worldwide availabile in Online Spotlight. My boss, Andrew, was pretty happy about this -- he's from the UK and quite happy we now have an offering where the people speak proper English.

I feel extremely lucky to work on a team which has produced a platform with the power and flexibility to enable content owners, designers and developers to create experiences for their customers. To the Media Center Team: Thanks! You guys are amazing!

I was thinking about it on the way home from work today...

We provide a platform where broadcasters can create entirely new channels delivered over the web to your television. Check out MTV Overdrive for Media Center. It's totally interactive and on demand. They have created a channel where the user gets to define the channel content. They are going to follow up with virtual channels for VH1, Comedy Central and mtvU early next year.

Have you ever been at work when you hear about a cool TV show airing later that evening, and won't be home in time to watch or record? We provide a platform which allows you to schedule recordings of TV shows from any place on the planet with an internet connection and web browser. The platform will leverage the cable, satellite, or antenna connection you probably already have in your home.

When you get home, you can watch those TV shows in your choice of rooms via Media Center Extenders. My wife and I do this all the time. We start watching a recorded TV show in the family room, pause it, go downstairs to the bedroom, fire up the MCX and pick up the show EXACTLY where we left off.

Oh, and the platform also allows you to enjoy MTV Overdrive for Media Center (or just about any other Online Spotlight experience) in any room courtesy of those same Media Center Extenders.

Want to check out a podcast or video blog on your stereo or TV? Newsgator Media Center Edition allows you to enjoy that long tail content using a remote control. Oh, it works on Media Center Extenders as well in any room of your house.

You can sync pictures, videos, music AND those recorded TV shows your choice of Portable Media Centers.

Developer enthusiast communities have formed around our platform, and they are a passionate group of folks. Media Center doesn't have the feature you want? Connect. Create. Share.

Cool.

I spent about an hour chatting about the next generation of our platform with one of our Software Design Engineers.

We've just been warming up...

I left comments over on his blog this time rather than summarizing here -- his latest is a good read...

FrontRow, One More Time

Everyone seems quite taken with the new video service in iTunes (and viewable in Front Row).  Hmmmmm -- how do we let people know about the great content available via Online Spotlight...?

I'm usually reticent to say things like this, but here goes...

I *think* I will be able to share some special news on Thursday / Friday which will contrast the approaches taken by Apple and Microsoft nicely. No promises, but stay tuned.

Oh, how I wish I spoke other languages outside of English (and C#). I just know some of the comments over at the german MacTechNews are good.  Even the flames look interesting, at least in German.

I found a really nice resource which explains the Media Center value proposition. At 4 minutes 45 seconds it is probably the best marketing piece I've seen us produce.  It answers one simple question...

What is a Media Center PC?

Note: Macromedia Flash Player Plug In Required.

Om Malik quotes me on his blog with Microsoft Media Center Vs Apple FrontRow.

He laments his problems with the digital video recorder (DVR) features of Media Center, which to date he hasn't gotten to play nice with his Comcast set top box.* He believes we 'overreached' by including the DVR feature in Media Center and makes the following suggestion:

'So what should Microsoft do? Two things. First release a Media Center XP Lite. Free. Basically help turn most of the newer PCs into simple devices for aggregating photos, watching DVDs, streaming music and playing back downloadable videos.'

Om states he 'would gladly pay $49.95' for a standalone version of Apple Front Row according to his I Want My FrontRow-on-TV post. I wonder why he would advise us to give away software which has a good bit more consumer value? Has he called for Apple to drop the price of the iPod by some significant amount because someone else shipped a competing MP3 player? Hopefully Om will elaborate further, because right now this makes zero sense from a business perspective.

Anywho...

I hope Om knows he can get a Media Center PC today without a TV tuner and thus fulfill his desire for a 'lite' version of Media Center on par with the Apple Front Row features (i.e. Photos, DVD, Music, Videos) for *considerably* less than a comparably equipped iMac with Front Row.

* My family uses a dual tuner Media Center with two Comcast set top boxes via IR blasting on a regular basis. While I have seen IR blasting issues (wrong channel recorded) they have been extremely rare in my experience.

I've been following the Apple’s Media Center PC End Around post over at http://www.applematters.com.  It's sort of like watching a very loooonnnnng tennis volley. 'Apple copied Microsoft.'  'No, Microsoft copied Apple.'

Back...forth...back...forth...back...forth...ad nauseum.

Note: I've used and owned Apple products over the years, starting with the original Mac way back when (actually even before with an Apple IIe back in elementary school -- Beagle Bros, peek and poke were my middle name). I also managed a graphics art house with Macs, Windows PCs and SparcStations all living happily together on the same network. I'm not one of these 'Macs suck' kind of people. To the contrary, I believe Apple makes good products, even if I happen to work at Microsoft.

Here are a couple of thoughts I've been noodling over the last couple of weeks...

1) It was a no-brainer for Apple to port it's iPod application over to Mac operating system and hook it up to a remote control. The interface has been tried and tested on millions of iPods.  It's low hanging fruit -- they probably didn't have to invest a ton of money to get the feature in their OS.  Microsoft kinda / sorta did the same thing, only in reverse order with the Media Center first, Portable Media Center second.

2) Porting the iPod application over to the OS is further evidence of the iPod halo effect Apple has been hoping for whereby strong sales of iPods translate into equally strong sales of Macs. It remains to be seen if there is actually a halo effect. I don't think so. The price inequities between a Windows PC and Mac are far greater than iPod vs. any other portable player, and I'm willing to bet there are more iPods connected to Windows PCs than iPods connected to Macs.

Update: I have added a chart which is the basis for my *opinion* there is no halo effect: http://www.retrosight.com/mediacenter/Apple_iPod_and_Mac_Sales.png. Read the comments for context.

3) Steve Jobs comparing the Apple remote control with the Media Center remote control was nothing but sheer marketing brilliance. It's totally not about which remote control is better. Not at all. By making this comparison, Steve Jobs gave the illusion the two products were on equal footing EXCEPT for the remote. All things being equal, Joe Consumer will choose the remote with 6 buttons instead of 40.