Entertainment Industry And Wireless Carriers Upset About The Inevitable

from the are-they-really-this-clueless? dept

For years, we've been saying that a true "Napster for mobile phones" was on the way, but the recording industry and (most) wireless carriers continued to put their head in the sand and think that mobile phones were somehow different than computers. This wasn't a particularly hard lesson to learn from just a few years ago, but both industries have an incredibly large set of blinders that they seem to wear. So, in the last few weeks as news spread about both SK Telecom and Nokia developing file sharing apps -- neither of which uses copy protection -- the industries were again taken by surprise. In response to these developments, they are fighting back by... complaining. Rather than actually dealing with the issue they're out talking about how such developments could be disastrous to their money making plans and how they shouldn't be allowed to continue. In other words, they're acting like buggy makers freaked out that someone is building cars and saying it shouldn't be allowed. While it was a bit surprising that the first developments came from large industry players, if the entertainment industry and the carriers somehow convince the large companies to back down on their plans, have no fear that smaller players will fill the void. The shortsightedness of so many companies in both industries continues to amaze.
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