Have you ever wanted to listen to celebrities expound on their political views? (Sidebar: Ron Silver excepted, does answering “yes” to the previous question automatically make you a Democrat?) Because if you have, then do I have a doozy of a ‘blog for you: The Huffingon Post, run by everyone’s favorite conservative-suv-driver-turned-card-carrying-greenie, the Grecian Arianna Huffington. She’s managed to bring together a bunch of A-, B-, and even C-list celebrities (and, I’ll grant, a few noteworthy commentators as well) to wax philosophical and political on her website. Despite being only up for one day, it’s already got more posts that I really want to read.
But there was a more salient reason for my bringing this up, which hearkens back to the title of the post. Among the guest contributors to the blog is Hilary Rosen, nee “RIAA Queen Bee,” who contributed this gem of a post, wherein she berates Steve Jobs for allowing the iPod to work only with songs from the iTunes music store, something that she considers an unfair restriction.
I ask you, is she just completely off her rocker? Is she completely immune to irony? I’ll give you a second to spot it. Another contributor took a stab at it, offering up the “How can Hilary Rosen complain about consumer choice when the RIAA has absolutely no consumer street-cred” argument. To this, I will give the “close, but no cigar” award.
What’s truly baffling about Ms. Rosen’s post is that the iPod is perfectly happy to play unrestricted music in the form of MP3s. So as long as any music you have is in the MP3 format, it will play merrily on your iPod. So why aren’t the songs from other music stores (not to mention the iTunes Music Store) playable on your iPod? Why aren’t they MP3s? Why the “anti-consumer” behavior of the iPod? Because of the RIAA! The DRM restrictions on iTMS and the other music stores are entirely because of Hilary Rosen’s merry band of lobbyists and lawyers. Without those restrictions, any music bought from any store (as long as it is in the widely accepted MP3 format) could be played on the iPod. Echoing the other link, I want some of what Hilary Rosen is smoking.