Sony boss calls Steve Jobs greedy
7/23/2007Sony boss Howard Stringer called Steve Jobs “greedy,” implying that Steve wants a world where only he makes money. Some have suggested that this response was due to the letter Steve Jobs wrote about the need for the music labels to abandon DRM technology in music downloads. Since I don’t have a transcript of what was actually discussed, I am flying blind in interpreting this event. I don’t know if Mr. Singer has his own jet or not, but I will stick my neck out and assume that he does not fly coach.
Greed is usually how people describe anybody who is richer than themselves. George Washington, for example, believed that the King was greedy and unjust, even though he himself was aristocratic and kept slaves, and eventually went on to build a city unto himself, just like all the other previous monarchs in history. The story of Sony and Apple has a similar root in hypocrisy, even though as employees of a corporation both men can be fired in a bloodless coup.
Steve Jobs was 100% correct that DRM technology is useless in protecting the industry from piracy. Go down to your local library and check-out all the CD’s you want, bring them home, duplicate them using Toast, and return them. You will have a perfect quality aiff-format CD for about 25 cents, which is much better than the sub-standard format that Apple offers through iTunes. To have DRM-protection on the less desirable junky format doesn’t make sense. (Of course, it doesn’t make sense to me why people spend millions of dollars at the iTunes store, either.)
Since the government will deliver to you, for free, a better quality version of music, that is where I suggest everybody go first. In Massachusetts, because of the inter-library loan program, they will even deliver the music to your local branch. I haven’t spent a significant amount of time in a music store for years. I have probably 500 LP’s in my basement from when I was a kid, but the days of having lots of disposable income to spend on music have long since passed. My kids can’t afford to buy music like I could when I was younger. Today the average CD costs three times the minimum wage, but when I was a kid an LP was less than half the minimum wage. So, who shall we say is greedy, the record companies or Steve Jobs?
In fact, they both are. For all the claims of “thinking different,” Steve is pretty much a standard run-of-the-mill capitalist. I have often described capitalism as two dogs fighting over two bones. It is based on two people who do not know how to share. Steve once said that “stealing” is bad for one’s soul, or something to that effect. God obviously agrees. But God also said that not sharing is bad for one’s soul, too. Nobody would need to steal in a world where people are generous and caring.
I recall reading that Steve Jobs looked up to Sony. Yes, even heroes have heroes. As such, this conflict is not surprising. We become like those we admire. This is a classic example of the kettle calling the pot black. I remember my old IIsi had a lot of Sony parts inside when I dismantled it, so clearly their business dealings together go back a long way. They are now in the odd situation where they are both each other’s customer and supplier. It is an unnatural combination in the assembly-line myopia of capitalism, and Sony has lost its previous advantage over Apple. The buyer always wants the lowest price possible, the seller always wants the highest price possible. They cannot reconcile their differences because they are like the two irrational dogs, and if they do, chances are you and I will pay the price. As Franklin described democracy, “it is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch,” business works the same way.
Mind you, I am not calling either of them “evil,” but it is safe to say that the two wolves will not feed the lamb except for the purpose of fattening him. (There is a reason why iTunes is free.) The consumer is their prey, and they define success as people standing in line to buy their products. We can’t blame them for this cycle when we are so eagerly a part of it. We are greedy for the goods and they are greedy for our money. We could share, or lower our prices to make it easier on the poor, but the habit is to do otherwise. The rich want it all for themselves, and then dole out small amounts with great fanfare, like Bill Gates. Those with smaller fortunes act similarly. When there are only two bones left, and the lamb is no longer at the table, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what happened. It’s just business as usual.
Sources: New York PostMacNN