Royalty Into Non Existent Business Model

We see alot of "innovations" in America - some dark. For example, some may recall the Bush Administration asking you (through millions of dollars spent in public campaign) .. to support the President's Policy of "Pre Emptive Self Defense" . And lately, you may have heard that Steve Jobs will not support Flash, nuking almost all of the currently available video content - right off the net. The smoking gun became a glowing crater.

The underlying idea behind this latest 'innovation' is fun to trace. First, we have to realize that Steve really isn't in the business of building computers anymore. He's in the entertainment business. iTunes, and Pixar are his mainstay businesses. He's in bed with all the major DMCA people. And he is not trying to invent a better computer. He's trying to invent a way that he can control what you see and hear. Because that's what his stakeholders want.

Flash is by and large an open standard. Steve won't make any money from it - and he won't lose any money if he allows the devices Apple are putting out - to support it. He simply decided he won't support it. Instead, he's supporting H.264.

H.264 will allow for content license companies to charge people who make videos - a license fee for originating their content. And in a new and interesting way. If you post the video to your website - you're going to have to pay for it to be there.

Isn't this like the woman who has the tub overflowing upstairs, and finds new ways to have both of her children constantly running through the door with bucks of water to bail the stream of water flowing downstair?

When all she should really do is just turn off the water ? We all look at Google and read their business model and remark to ourselves that 'Do No Evil' seems a noble element of any corporate vision. But when it comes down to who is going to turn the screws - on whom... will Google's VP8 catch fire? Or will Apple force people down a road that once again makes a narrowly defined entertainment company elite - mega-billions, while stifling off the efforts and work of my daughter? My friends? Or anyone else making independent film?

This war is dividing the internet. Firefox has decided they will not support the new standard. Google Chrome is simply not a stable platform. And so, it divides now between software and hardware platforms - and interoperability for each. Apple's iPad will have to catch fire and their 'Safari' browser become some kind of standard. Neither will likely be the case. No matter how vigorously Apple defends multi-touch interface, solid state devices using a variant of that interface will come within two years. The hardware industry is ruthless: we will have alternatives there. But in the software, and particularly - the browser wars... I am noticing a few things about IE8 and the other browsers - that are disturbing. For example, haloscan comments systems don't work in IE8. And certain style sheets are locking up there as well.

Safe money is to retreat to Firefox, which is by and large a small memory footprint, fast, and stable browsing platform. The concept that one can charge royalties from a non existent business model - is as alien to open source development - and the growth of the net - as pre emptive self defense is to peaceful democracy.

Know your rights.


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