Good for you, not for me

Now I'm a big Steve Jobs and Apple fan, but I'm not a fan of something that appears to be hypocritical. I ceratainly don't like "Hollywood" and the rest of the entertainment industry at all, but that 's outside this topic.

Steve's recent open letter on music calling for copyright holder to eliminate DRM is interesting. So Steve, the record companies should eliminate DRM and allow music to be shared and copied however consumers wish? How about Apple doing that with Mac OS X Leopard, let consumers install your OS on any machine they want and as many machines as they want, or even share their copy of your OS with their friends and families? Sounds like "do as I say, not as I do".

I have a few Mac's, can I go and buy one copy of Leopard and install it on all of my Macs? I have a few Intel boxes running Linux, can I install Leopard on them too, using my one copy? I have friends and family that would also like to run Leopard, should I let them use my single copy that I paid for? Of course not, I'm not allowed to do that. Apple would see that as a breach of contract or violating their ownership rights or something of that sort, that is, it is not legal for me to do so. In fact, even if I purchase a separate copy for each machine I own, it is illegal for me to install Mac OS X on a non-Apple machine.

Tell us why should any digital content owner (movie studios, music labels and other publishers, etc.) allow someone to buy their content once and copy it anywhere and everywhere, to any / as may devices (e.g., computers, mp3 players, phones, PDAs, etc.) and share it with anyone they wish?

When Apple relaxes or eliminates its software digital rights, its licensing and usage requirements and constraints on its software (not just the OS), then they can take the "moral" high-ground position and ask others to do the same, not before.

So Steve, when do you plan to allow consumers unlimited copy and unlimited use digital rights for each single copy of Apple software that they purchase? When will consumers be allowed to install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware?