Jason Chervokas, former editor of @NY magazine, has a great piece up on his blog about the continuing stupidity of the current media /DRM model (hat tip to Fred Wilson of A VC for the link):
“I like Howard Stern. I’m willing to pay $13 a month for the option of flipping over to his show when I feel like it. But I’m not willing to invest time, money, or aggravation in the hardware or installation services required to buy into the Sirius distribution network. I’m willing to pay for the content, but I want my content liberated, free to roam the network of networks until I pull it down to the device of my choice at the time of my choice for the personal use of my choice… end users want information to be network- and device-agnostic.”
Jason is totally right, as is Fred. And just after reading both of their takes on the issue, what do I come across but this post at PaidContent, in which Staci points to Walt Mossberg’s review in the Wall Street Journal of the ESPN phone – which comes with all kinds of ESPN content, but is so restricted and locked down and cumbersome in what it allows that it sounds like a recipe for disaster.