EliHarari
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SanDisk does up its own "Open Letter," drops the ball
If we didn't know any better, we'd accuse SanDisk of a bit of anti-Apple-ism right here. Sure, it's hard for Eli Harari, CEO of SanDisk, to come out in agreement with a competitor of his whose market domination makes his 2nd place standing look completely inconsequential, but there was really no need for SanDisk to shoot themselves in the foot here. See, while Steve Jobs laid out quite clearly the ridiculous nature of DRM for digital distribution, even if sidestepping the issue on FairPlay interoperability at the same time, Eli seems to be perfectly fine with the way things are in DRM land. "SanDisk is looking at the big picture, by creating solutions rather than conflict. Building an infrastructure to give consumers fair access to digital content while protecting content creators is vital for the long-term health of the music industry, as well as to our business and to our competitors. SanDisk stands committed to making this happen." SanDisk's open letter highlights the numerous music stores its players interoperate with, and poo-poos proprietary systems which is all well and good, even commendable, but lines like "the decision on using digital rights management (DRM) should rest with the music industry, not with device makers." don't really win them a lot of points with consumers. This all especially rings false since Mr. Harari seemed plenty miffed by the music industry's stance on DRM at his recent CES press conference, stating that he hoped the industry was coming around. So what's it going to be, Eli?[Thanks, Matt]
