08 Sep 2009
Microsoft's Silverlight swallows off-line DRM pill

Does this mean it'll play for sure?

The next version of Microsoft's Silverlight will cozy up to media giants with out-of-browser digital rights management (DRM).

(link) [The Register]

21:18 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Going for broke

I have no love for the corporate overlords of Wall Street. But Michael Moore, well, what can I say?

Asked how he could justify railing against capitalism while being backed by big film studios and distributors, Moore had a typically belligerent answer.

"Why have these companies given money to a guy who is diametrically opposed to everything they stand for? I take advantage of one of the beautiful flaws of capitalism which is that the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang himself if he can make a buck. So they only think about money - they do not really care what I believe, which is upsetting on some levels."

You characterize this willingness to finance ideological opponents as a flaw? How else are resources to be allocated if not by this lingering remnant of a free market? Perhaps you'd prefer the system they had in the old Soviet Union, where only politically correct views were funded. That sure would've cut out "Centigrade 1968", your planned expose on the Czech invasion, eh?

Or perhaps you'd prefer the system in the Old South, where lunch counter owners cared a lot more about the color of their patrons skin than they did about making money.

This "flaw" is precisely why a free market always leads to free minds - the market for ideas is content neutral. The alternative is a cesspool of slavery, where you'd better hold the correct opinions if you want to make movies - or eat.

Wall Street feels the wrath of Michael Moore

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

21:09 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link