. . . continued from Hot News Apple and all the people who work there thought that by working hard, developing a superb hardware platform for music, breaking through the online music sales barriers erected by skittish and paranoid music rights holders, that the only thing standing between the company and unqualified success was the will to keep promoting, developing and selling. Don't forget Mac OS X either—it's also quite the achievement. Silly Apple. Didn't the smart guys who run the joint think that eventually somebody would get bored with attacking Microsoft all the time and turn his attention instead to a fresh target? All this time, Microsoft has been the target of millions of assaults on every aspect of its business—office software, operating systems, browsers, piracy and you-name-it. Some of the legal assaults have even been legitimate. But did Apple and all of the Linux proponents really believe they would remain relatively immune from similar assaults even as their respective stars rise? Give your heads a shake boys and girls. Jon Johansen and his granfalloon are non-specific opportunists; equal opportunity attackers; generalists of a high order. Whatever any of us may think of Digital Rights Management (DRM), Jon and the worldwide gang are here to tell us that they have their own ideas. Those ideas include the notion that all barriers are meant to be broken if they think it's right (or even just possible) to do so. Johansen probably forgot about the fact that Apple's relatively secure DRM is the main reason otherwise terrorized music vendors allowed iTunes to sell such an interesting mix of music in the first place. Johansen bellied up to the bar because it was there. I do not for one minute believe PyMusique's "fair interface for iTunes" tagline.

. . . Apple's relatively secure DRM is the main reason otherwise terrorized music vendors allowed iTunes to sell such an interesting mix of music in the first place.

Various governmental authorities, along with a phalanx of very serious looking lawyers, are converging on assorted domiciles in Norway and elsewhere, fully intent on drawing and quartering the alleged miscreant sand anyone associated with them. If Johansen wanted notoriety, he's got it. Unfortunately, the next few months of his life aren't going to be particularly pleasant, what with all the legal problems. Stress and ulcers are just around the corner for you fella. Pass the Maalox please. Either that or Apple will offer you a job—anything to make you stop what you're doing. Don't hold your breath on that last bit though. Mostly these days, music vendors and rights holders are looking for scalps. G'luck to ya Jon.

My oldest son is a musician. His band, Torsion, is based in Toronto. They're going to be releasing some of their music online, free of charge. It's their choice. They're going to continue selling their CDs too. The business model for the band looks more like a web of efforts than the single track, old-style approach of play, record, sell, tour (repeat). Look at the business model behind bands such as Tool and Opeth and you'll understand the approach. It's fame and popularity that the band itself controls which is most important. The money to support what the band wants to do comes with time and effort. That's the new reality for many good musicians and bands. I will bet real money that the top quality free releases Torsion puts online won't be enough for certain fans. Once the band reaches a certain level of popularity, all of its music will be fair game.

Disagree with DRM. Then go out and create something original and start selling it. Wait for one of your customers to start copying and distributing it free of charge and without your permission. Then talk about how you still disagree with DRM.

I naively hope that Johansen and his minions may only be interested in unrestricted personal use of the music they purchase for download. Realistically, I don't know anyone who uses unrestricted music files solely for their own benefit. Almost everyone I know who uses unrestricted music is exchanging files with friends and strangers.

Good old Apple has been swinging in the PC doldrums at about 3%-4% of the market for ages, a far cry from its halcyon days of the early 90's. Things are looking up mind you, because Mac OS X is arguably the best consumer and business desktop OS available today. Apple's market share is again creeping upward ever so slowly. Apple's dramatically improved (and better understood) marketing optics, courtesy of the justifiably wild popularity of the iPod, are having their effect. Business is brisk in Cupertino. So how long will it be before the virus writers start targeting Mac OS X? Wait for it folks—endless rounds of OS X patches may be just around the corner. Mind you, it may not happen until Microsoft truly tightens things up in its own house, making it too tough (or just too much work) for would-be crackers, hackers and virus writers.

A security hole in the otherwise excellent Firefox web browser has been fixed. Download the update now. I do not believe for one moment that an open source project can be fully secure. The programmers working for Microsoft aren't any dumber or smarter than the programmers working for Mozilla or working privately. As Firefox grabs more and more market share from the lackluster Internet Explorer, more and more people are going to be looking for flaws in the Mozilla projects.

Just as Microsoft's massive expansion resulted in the appearance of a big bullseye on its rear end, so too have all of its mistakes helped to teach other programmers what not to do. It's an unintended, beneficial side-effect which happens after somebody else jumps off the pier first. Likewise, Microsoft's efforts at reducing the targetability of its products will pay off as time goes by. For now, Microsoft is still the biggest target, but Mac OS X and Linux distros of all kinds are next on the list. I can hardly wait. There is no security.

The curious thing about potential attacks on Mac OS X and Linux is that it's liable to be good for business. Every attack generates sales of antivirus software, development of firewalls, anti-spam tools, and spyware removal utilities. What doesn't exist now to protect OS X and Linux, will surely exist in multiple selections after the first round of serious attacks. Apple and all of the open source and corporate Linux developers will do well to pay attention right now and realize that the vandals don't care about open source freedom, the GNU public license, the elegance of OS X or anything else besides finding vulnerabilities in whatever product that has the misfortune to be successful.

It's a strange world.

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