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iPad Is a "Huge Step Backward"
An anonymous reader writes "FSF's John Sullivan launches the Defective by Design campaign and petition to rain on Steve's parade, barely minutes out of the starting gate. 'This is a huge step backward in the history of computing,' said FSF's Holmes Wilson, 'If the first personal computers required permission from the manufacturer for each new program or new feature, the history of computing would be as dismally totalitarian as the milieu in Apple's famous Super Bowl ad.' The iPad has DRM writ large: you can only install what Apple says you may, and 'computing' goes consumer mainstream — no more twiddling, just sit back, spend your money, and watch the show — while we allow you to." What is clear is that the rise of the App Store removes control of the computer from the user. It makes me wonder what the next generation of OS X will look like.
Would you like some cheese with your whine?
It's not defective, RMS et al: it's a CHOICE. You purport to like choice, but no one believes you anymore. Many consumers don't care, and even LIKE, the idea of being locked in to the App Store, because it introduces a significant amount of safety.
Also, it's not a "huge step backward" even if we agree with everything else you say, because it's what's on the iPhone. It's not backward, it's the same.
And there's no chance whatsoever that this will ever happen to Mac OS X, so don't lose sleep over it.
I'm not sure being a major shareholder and CEO of the company selling the most DRM encumbered music really qualifies as being "on record as opposing DRM", I would count it as fairly clear tacit approval.
I would agree that it is obvious that he understood the downsides of using DRM (as a content provider...) and didn't necessarily want to use it, but it sure wasn't exactly opposition.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
You actually bought one of those? You fucking idiot.
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!