The common statement that seems to be repeating is that DRM only hurts the consumer. When UBISoft’s DRM servers went down it meant that no one could play Assassins Creed 2, at least that is what it should have meant. There were still people playing the game. Those that were still playing were the people who the DRM was explicitly designed to stop – the Pirates. 24 hours after UBISoft first adopted their current DRM strategy, pirates were able to get around it and play unimpeded.

The issue at hand is that content creators feel, and perhaps rightly so, that they should be able to control who has access to their works. Valve’s Gabe Newell recently stated “One thing that you hear [Valve] talk a lot about is entertainment as a service. It’s an attitude that says ‘what have I done for my customers today? It informs all the decisions we make, and once you get into that mindset it helps you avoid things like some of the Digital Rights Management problems that actually make your entertainment products worth less by wrapping those negatives around them.”

I think this is an important point and it is this point that allowed me to come up with a proposed alternative to DRM. Let me use the Gaming industry in my example. Currently new games retail for around $60 when they are first released. This, to many, it a pretty hefty price and could easily be a justification to pirate games. What I would propose is the following:

Gaming purchase loyalty plan

This would be a plan instituted by the publisher of the game. A new game comes out and a customer buys this game for $60 bucks. That customer is now a part of the loyalty program. A few months later the publisher releases another game. This game costs $60 bucks but the customer referenced earlier would only pay $50 – A discount for being a loyal customer. Month later the publisher releases another game. Again this game retails for $60 but now the customer who paid $50 before now pays $40. This process repeats until the customer is paying $30 dollars a game and then every subsequent purchase is for the same $30 dollars.

As a publisher you have now created something of value – the repeat customer. If the price point get better as a customer invests more into the company than there is incentive for them to continue purchasing.

This same model could be applied to the e-book industry, Music industry, movie industry etc. Rather than pushing your customers away and towards more unsavory yet increasingly attractive means of obtaining your product you are providing them with something they can embrace.

When that happens I can’t help but hope that those companies dry up and become a “casualty” of the economic crisis.

There is one more accolade I can give to them – They are marketing geniuses with a sense of style. I recently received a TShirt from Affiliate.com in celebration of Affiliate Summit West and this shirt rocks!

This shirt is fantastic! And the best part about it is the stylishly written URL on the back of the shirt. Why is this such an important feature? Well people see me wearing this shirt (it really REALLY stands out) and then see the URL on the back and they instantly engage me in conversation. They want to know what affiliate.com is. It can’t help but notice a bit of envy in their voice as they are asking me about the company and then when they ask “Do you work for them?” I get to reply with “Nope. They just love their clients!”

Good job Affiliate.com, Good Job.

You can view the Shirt here

On this track my friend Damien was in charge of starting the beat and decided to play balls out and we spent the song playing catchup. Hope you like it

[audio:http://www.itsnotyours.com/audio/Ridilin.mp3]

Essentially Google claims that while android is open source that one can not use android to distribute closed source programs (such as the gmail or google maps program.). Keep in mind that these apps are included in the standard install of the Android OS for t-mobile and many of these apps are freely available on the android marketplace. Including these apps in a custom rom only helps google as it give them the one thing that makes them money, more eyeballs. More eyeballs means more eyes on advertisements and more money. The more people use these products, the more their loyalty to google grows.

The android community is pretty small, in comparison to other phone OS markets, so to piss off the 30,000 active Cyanogen users doesn’t seem like the best course of action. Cyanogenmod has brought a level of usability to the G1 that made this device a viable alternative to the IPhone. It seems pretty petty of Google to state that they don’t want someone to distribute a product of theirs, that they give away for free, that does nothing but add value to their overall product.

There must be something more to Google’s decision and it makes me wonder if they are living by their company mission statement. …”Google’s mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”. They may even be turning their back on their Code of Conduct which starts with the line “Don’t be evil.”

Everone who has looked at the Zune HD since I picked it up has echoed my sentiment. I can safely say that Microsoft hit it out of the park with this one. The interface is easy to navigate and easy to learn. Pairing this device with a zune pass is a great way to experience and discover new music.

The zune software also received an overhaul. I think that this media software is the best media management software for windows, hands down. Even if you don’t have a zune it is worth it to give the software a try.

Mike says

I was there in January 2007 when it was announced and I bought the first iPhone as soon as it was available. I happily bought the iPhone 3G a year later. I’ve proudly yelled “I Am A Member Of The Cult Of iPhone.” I’ve been an unabashed cheerleader for the device to all who’ll listen. And I’ve scoffed at developers who said they’d abandon the platform…

What finally put me over the edge? It wasn’t the routinely dropped calls, something you can only truly understand once you have owned an iPhone. I’ve lived with that for two years. It’s not the lack of AT&T coverage at home. I’ve lived with that for two years, too. It certainly isn’t the lack of a physical keyboard, that has never bothered me. No, what finally put me over the edge is the Google Voice debacle…..

Or so I thought. Apple and AT&T are now blocking the iPhone version of the Google Voice app. Why? Because they absolutely don’t want people doing exactly what I’m doing – moving their phone number to Google and using the carrier as a dumb pipe….

I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is worth leaving AT&T for, especially when there are so many other good reasons to do so, but I can under stand why it would be a frustration. If you have a cell phone number should you not be able to use the number as you see fit, baring any illegal activity? As more and more people use their cellphones as a their main point of contact it is becoming imperative that we be able to control who is allowed to contact us and when they are allowed to do so.

GrandCentral created the solution to this problem and Google acquired it, making it into Google Voice. With Google at the helm there is a great chance of success for the program but only if you are allowed to use it. It seems to me that AT&T doesn’t want to allow their users to utilize conveniences unless they provide it and control it. I amd remindedof the list of of features that were rolled out for the 3gs that were available on networks other than AT&T. I wouldn’t want to be with a company that says “Sure your device can do this but we don’t want you to so you can’t”

Mike isn’t the only one who has had problems though. Om Malik from GigaOm also left AT&T and the Iphone for what I believe is a more justified reason.

Om Malik said

Earlier this morning, after enduring days and days of dropped calls and errant network behavior, I quit on my iPhone. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it had to be done. I depend almost exclusively on my mobile phone for my communications. Whether it be surfing the web, checking email, sending text messages or talking — my mobile is the center of my daily existence.

That being said, AT&T’s network just wasn’t cutting it for me. I even tried using a BlackBerry, but the network issues never quite went away. Then over the past few days, my iPhone was spending ungodly stretches of time “searching” for the network, the download speeds of web pages slowed down, and email — well that’s a whole other story. The static, the dropped calls and above all the shoddy call quality were enough to raise my blood pressure. And given my medical history, that’s not a good thing. The only feature that worked flawlessly: SMS.

I love my iPhone — but AT&T’s network has failed me.

He isn’t alone in this issue, not by a long shot. Before the Iphone was even in existence I jumped ship from AT&T for the exact same reasons. My calls were consistently dropped and the service just wasn’t reliable. This seems to be a regional thing. I was in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time so, of course, I think that this is a pretty important area to have reliable service in, as egotistical as we all are.

Two of my friends on twitter have weighed in on this subject to say

tremorx: yeah.. and I think the network issues are entirely locational; AT&T has vastly better coverage where I am than anyone else.

squash86: @tremorx this is very true in Buffalo. I get great signal and data (1200/300).

It definitely seems that this is a case of “your mileage may vary” but I for one am happy to see some negative press for the IPhone every once in a while.

You can read Mike Arrington’s article Here

You can read Om Malik’s article Here

Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say “Amazon acquires Zappos” or “Zappos sells to Amazon”. While those headlines are technically correct, they don’t really properly convey the spirit of the transaction. (I personally would prefer the headline “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”)

Essentially Amazon is going to become the sole shareholder of Zappos stock. It seems that this is a weird time for acquisitions, what with the economy and all, but who knows. Maybe they got a good deal. You can read the full letter from the CEO at the Wall Street Journal

Old media needs to embrace new technology or be run over by it. Personally I will continue to get my news online.

Today it seems that those analysts were correct. Google Announced that they will be releasing a light weight open source operating system.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

I like that last sentance. It should just work. In my opinion that is how most Google Products function. They just work and they work beautifully. Google does make a point to state that the new OS will be separate from Android. As a person with an Android phone, I hope this won’t cause Android to be left in the cold. If I know Google I think they will be able to handle both as both of these products offer a lot of promise.

You can read the full blog announcement here