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Around this time last year, we bought a new Windows PC, which naturally means that we bought an anti-virus/security package to go along with it; in this case, we decided to go with McAfee. The software itself works well enough, so there is really no reason to complain about it, except for when it periodically requires you to “check in” to make sure that your software is still current. The problem is that, upon logging in, you get presented with a screen that looks exactly like this:

Just this morning, McAfee notified me that our coverage has now expired, so I will have to either log into the Web site and pay for an extension, or buy a new version of the product from my local software vendor. After logging in and being greeted by the cheerful but mostly blank screen above, I’m considering buying new software—but probably not McAfee’s. They just don’t seem to want my business enough to go that extra mile and actually, you know, offer me something to buy. 

By now, anyone who cares about these things has probably already read Steve Jobs’ ”Thoughts on Music,” an open letter that advocates the abolition of digital rights management (DRM) technologies as currently applied to downloadable music. Among other things, Jobs writes: “This is clearly the best alternative for consumers,” which is undoubtedly true. I’ve never met anyone who has actually liked DRM, but some people put up with it because they feel there is no other choice. I am very much not one of those people.

To me, DRM on music is unacceptable and I have long refused to buy an iPod (or any other type of music player) or download any music simply on principle. That’s how strongly I disagree with the fundamental concept of DRM. For a long time, I assumed that DRM was simply an inevitable trend in the music industry. I wasn’t happy about it, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy into it, but I thought that it would, unfortunately, take root regardless of my resistance to it. But now Steve Jobs seems to have shaken up the assumption that DRM is even necessary, much less inevitable, for which I think he deserves to be applauded.

Following the initial news about Jobs’ letter, there have been a number of additional ones indicating that DRM isn’t very popular with European music company executives, either. I think most people in the music business realize that restricting how music can be played back is not a good way to increase sales, and I am just one of presumably a large number of consumers demonstrating exactly that. I would buy an iPod and start fleshing out my music collection tomorrow if the music labels would drop DRM. And they should, but they won’t, which means I will continue to spend my money on other things until they wise up.

Wow, Apple’s new iPhone looks like it is going to seriously diminish whatever appetite the market may have had for Microsoft’s Zune. Too bad it won’t be available here for a while, but I guess that gives me time to scrap together the hundred thousand or so yen it’s probably going to cost when it arrives in Japan. As usual, the estimable Luis has all the details.

At long last, today marks my first day as a Mac owner. I picked up my new MacBook last night and let it charge overnight; I’m booting it up for the first time even as I type this message. 

So far, so good! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to learn how to use this thing. 

I happened to catch this news tidbit on Digg today:

British Library calls for digital copyright action

The British Library has called for a “serious updating” of current copyright law to “unambiguously” include digital content and take technological advances into account.

In a manifesto released on Monday at the Labor Party Conference in Manchester, the United Kingdom’s national library warned that the country’s traditional copyright law needs to be extended to fully recognize digital content.

“Unless there is a serious updating of copyright law to recognize the changing technological environment, the law becomes an ass,” Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, told ZDNet UK.

Digital rights management (DRM) technologies and licensing agreements currently can impose restrictions on copying content that go beyond the requirements of copyright law. This needs legal clarification, according to the British Library.

I think the general public needs to hear more of this, because these days it seems like our rights, particularly with respect to issues like copyrights, are being defined more and more by corporations than by governments. At times I think we are at risk of losing the rights we once enjoyed as citizens and are acquiring in return only the so-called “rights” that companies choose to grant us as consumers. It is well beyond time that copyright laws were updated to reflect modern realities, lest corporations be at the forefront of defining our rights in perpetuity.