We live in a weird, temporary bubble during which it is actually possible to sell people ringtones and video and crap for their phones, because mobile phones usually come locked down and unlocking them isn't a common practice yet. So there's this temporary opportunity for media companies to bleed their customers for music and movies they already own in tiny, stripped down "mobile" versions, and any company that doesn't get in on the act now is gonna lose its chance soon, as market forces drive phones to more and more open states.
Which is why Disney is blowing its own goddamned brains out by refusing to sell any of its stuff via mobile phones' Bluetooth connections. I mean, all this crap is already available on Kazaa as MPEGs and MP3s, where anyone in the world can download them, but Disney is freaking out because they're worried that someone 10 feet away from me and I might trade our Mickey wallpaper.
They're boycotting Bluetooth until such time as Bluetooth starts to include DRM. I participate in standards efforts for DRM, and they are slow, contentious and ultimately fruitless. Which means that by the time DIsney wakes up and recognizes the future that's gnawing at its ass, the opportunity will be gone.
Dear fellow Disney shareholders, we need to get this company back on the rails before it outsmarts itself into bankruptcy.
Walt Disney Co., for one, won't allow its wireless partners to deliver any of its ringtones, video games and other content to phones with Bluetooth or infrared, another technology for direct connections between devices, until the industry adopts a more secure format to prevent unauthorized sharing and copying.
(Thanks, Joel!)
