Mike McGuire

Apple gets some props this week for allowing consumers to upgrade their existing iTunes-purchased library of songs to DRM-free AAC/256kbps versions one at a time. As opposed to having to upgrade the whole lot as originally required when the store’s catalog was converted to DRM-free status earlier this month. (Yes, I thought $700 was a [...]

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Oh boy, it just seems like these two kids – music labels (and probably the movie studios and some TV networks) and ISPs just want to get hitched, no matter how many family members, friends and members of the clergy are against it. It’s like they can’t keep their hands off each other. But instead [...]

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Even though U.S. broadcasters are ready and 95 percent of consumers are ready, the fabled Digital Transition, scheduled for February 17, the Senate, at the urging of President Obama, voted to delay the full switch from analog to digital TV for four months. Citing data from Nielsen, some 6.5 million households would go dark if [...]

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What can I say about this? Specific legal and operational issues aside, this case is another great example of what I think is the real real challenge facing the media industry when it comes to making a successful transition to online distribution: using the courts and law as a first, second and third response to [...]

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Last year Steve Jobs wrote an open letter to the music industry imploring the industry to drop their requirements that songs sold on iTunes be wrapped with the company’s FairPlay DRM. On Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, Phil Schiller, Apple’s worldwide senior VP for product marketing, got to announce that the US’ largest music retailer, iTunes [...]

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