Apparently Mickey Mouse’s corporate parent, Walt Disney is shit scared of bluetooth and will not allow wireless carriers to send any ringtones, video games etc or other content using bluetooth or infrared or any direct connection technologies up until the wireless biz comes up with a solid DRM technology. (Given that they are working with Microsoft in wireline efforts, well, less said.) Mobile Playa writes “I thought it was just carriers that were afraid of Bluetooth, now we learn that content owners, too, aren’t too excited about it. I suppose it’s not all that surprising, and the article points out that content owners are still nervous about getting Napster-ized. Still, does anybody honestly believe Bluetooth will have any effect on sales of Disney ringtones or videogames?”
So much for open standards. What good is having interoperable devices if content providers won’t let you use them for their content until they have been crippled to the point where only the corps can give you content and not the person who actually owns their own damn phone and CDs, movies, etc?
DRM-this and DRM-that just means I won’t be buying this and I won’t be buying that. The only exception to that so far has been Apple for me and the iPod and iTMS because it’s priced right for me. But I can still use my gigs of MP3s ripped from my own CD collection.
So in the end, sure, add DRM to whatever crap you want, but if you don’t let non-DRM formats come to your party then your going to be staring at some pretty crappy sales figures.