First, let me express my deep appreciation for openness on the Web. Can’t say it enough, really. It’s what makes the cloud such a great place to travel. No question about that.
But I’m going to play devil’s advocate for the moment. I’ll say in response to the statements of Jonathan Zittrain made in his book, “The Future of the Internet - and How to Stop It,” that proprietary does have its place. Zittrain, in speaking to Brian Baker in a Newsweek interview, claims that some companies - his examples are Apple and Facebook, to name a couple - are stifling innovation. You know, because of all the closed developments and exclusive deals they arrange and so forth.
Which is really just a nonsensical position to have. I will agree very much with any statement that pegs some technology giants of the world as uncompetitive, to varying degrees. Several much more so than others. But looking at the progress made within, say, the past 5-10 years among Internet developments, new and old, there’s little evidence, if any, that innovation hasn’t been delivered in abundance, even with closed systems playing champions in various markets.
For example, it’s been only five years since the debut of Apple’s iTunes Store. In that time, the music industry has effectively had its business model turned on its face. 99-cent for a single, any single? I would say that’s some handy innovation, albeit quite belated. And in that time we’ve seen copy protection technologies effectively left for dead by many online outlets. (It is only the insistence of record companies to saddle the majority of the iTunes library with DRM to accelerate the growth of competitors to the Apple-made juggernaut that keeps such locks in place.) These aren’t small changes. And again, they’ve occurred in the span of just five years. That’s a rather short time in which to cause such a shift, wouldn’t you say?
Keeping to the Apple theme, Zittrain places the company’s iPhone software developer kit, or SDK, in the category of bad omens. He thinks it is unfortunate that Steve Jobs can dictate which software is allowed for distribution to iPhone owners come June, given that Apple will command control over a filter through which developers will make submissions for official approval. My question is, if that were not the case, what would happen? The iPhone would be subject to misbehavior from third parties. Now, ideally, such openness could be good. A totally free market is a nice concept to consider. But this is Apple’s baby. Unless the company deceives consumers into believing it is an open platform when it is not, Cupertino can do as it wishes, whether to its benefit or to ill effect.
(...)
Read the rest of Internet Law Prof Spells Doomsday For Web Innovation (395 words)
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