Companies tossing aside consumers' freedoms

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Posted on Sun, Jan. 18, 2004

Companies tossing aside consumers' freedoms

By Dan Gillmor
Mercury News Technology Columnist

The digital revolution has been all about empowering people, to use
technology in ways that broaden our horizons and our freedom. So when
the tech industry began moving into consumer electronics, there were
reasons to expect great things.

The consumer electronics companies, by and large, have sold closed
boxes that deliberately limit customers' options. This is by
tradition, in part for simplicity and ease of use, but also to
placate an entertainment industry that tramples customers' rights in
the name of curbing copyright infringement.

I've been hoping that the tech industry will bring its better
traditions into the living room -- expanding customers' flexibility
and creativity, not curbing them.

At the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January,
the evidence was mixed. While new technology is adding some useful
features to consumer electronics, tech companies -- by embracing
Hollywood-dictated restrictions on how digital content is used --
have allied themselves with a greedy cartel at the expense of their
own customers.


...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/7739841.htm

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/dan_gillmor/7739841.htm

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/