Nightmare?

I've never been a fan of The Guardian, and articles like this are why.

As you probably observed, I'm watching the music and movie intellectual property legal cases closely. This article is completely anti-Microsoft from the first sentence:

Music fans are facing a 'nightmare' clash of technologies as Bill Gates's Microsoft prepares a multi-million pound launch into the digital music market.

Even the quotes around "nightmare" don't hide David Smith's bitterness toward Microsoft. I'm not a fan of corporations dictating how and when I listen to music. But the lead paragraph in the story prevents it from being news. There is no evidence that Microsoft jumping into yet another industry is going to be a nightmare. In fact, Microsoft is in the process of trying sell their venture into publishing A.K.A. Slate.

Microsoft grows by purchasing marketing share, charging outrageous license fees to their huge installed customer base, and by trial and error R&D. Their venture into the music industry falls into the latter category. There are a lot of failures in Microsoft's wake and this article doesn't even come close to bringing that out.

Again, lazy journalism strikes, leaving the false impression that there is a "war" coming between Apple and Microsoft over music. The reality will be far different. I would be diappointed if Microsoft didn't try their hand at music. Come on, they can only upgrade Office so much before they've run out of new features to pollute programs like Word. If they don't try new things, they will not exist in ten years.

What really scares me is what passes for journalism these days.

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