Comment Times change.... businesses change... (Score 1) 721
There was an article in WIRED a few months ago talking about fair use policies. It referred to an incident when VHS was just starting out:
A company developed a system to be used for video rentals. It had a mechanical system that allowed the tape to be played through only once. Then it had to be returned to the video store where they could use a special key to rewind it. (Sounds a bit like DIVX!)
This company took their prototype to Disney and showed if off. The Disney Execs were appalled... they said there was no way they would ever allow such a system to be used with their movies for how would they know how many people were in the room watching it!!!!
Obviously times have changed and Disney has a very viable market in video sales and rentals. But this is an example of a company fearing new technologies would drive them out of business, and then coming to embrace it with time.
MP3 will be like that eventually. Companies are resistant now, it is seen as a threat, but eventually they will realize that there is no stopping it. No amount of copy protection schemes is going to stop MP3. Companies would be better off spending their time and money finding new ways to do business WITH MP3, not against it.
A company developed a system to be used for video rentals. It had a mechanical system that allowed the tape to be played through only once. Then it had to be returned to the video store where they could use a special key to rewind it. (Sounds a bit like DIVX!)
This company took their prototype to Disney and showed if off. The Disney Execs were appalled... they said there was no way they would ever allow such a system to be used with their movies for how would they know how many people were in the room watching it!!!!
Obviously times have changed and Disney has a very viable market in video sales and rentals. But this is an example of a company fearing new technologies would drive them out of business, and then coming to embrace it with time.
MP3 will be like that eventually. Companies are resistant now, it is seen as a threat, but eventually they will realize that there is no stopping it. No amount of copy protection schemes is going to stop MP3. Companies would be better off spending their time and money finding new ways to do business WITH MP3, not against it.
