March 14, 2005
sony and savile row
Sir Howard Stringer is Sony’s new CEO. So now we have a Japanese company, run by a New York-based Briton who speaks no Japanese.
Joi Ito posts an open letter to Sir Howard:
I think you understand Sony and have many of the things that Sony needs to become the global company that Mr. Idei wanted it to be. My main concern is that you are quite immersed in the entertainment side of the business and I really believe that Hollywood is taking an unreasonably strong position on the copyright issue and is impinging on the rights of users and amateur creators. In your new role as the head of Sony, I urge you to try to take a more balanced and long-term view on the copyright issues. I suggest you at least listen to the rhetoric of the “other side” and maybe start by reading “The Future of Ideas” by Lawrence Lessig.
Paid content is theoretically unnecessary, or at least, getting more unnecesarry by the day.
Anyone in the business of selling paid content is in an industry where methods to get people like me spending money are going to be at best, much harder, and at worst, utterly devious and contemptable.
It’ll be interesting to see how Sony bridges the gap in the next few years.
Sony and Savile Row actually aren’t that different. Neither one can make their product cheaper than their competitors. Both live or die by how seriously they take design.
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Hugh,
» Paid content is theoretically unnecessary, or at least, getting more unnecesarry by the day.
BS.
WM_MY0.02$
thomas woelfer
Thank you for your well-crafted rebuttal, Mr. Woelfer.
“Sony and Savile Row actually aren’t that different. Neither one can make their product cheaper than their competitors.“
Ha — interesting attempt to equate $4,000 suits for incredibly important people of exceptional taste with a company that basically forced Sega to move off hardware with hugely aggressive cost-cutting and price wars for PS1, PSOne and PS2.
Whilst Sony do charge a design premium for some of their products, their recent fortunes are almost totally dependent on them shifting lots and lots of cheap PS2 boxes.
AcouSvnt,
just trying to stay clos to Hughs style of writing. just without the business cards, of course.
WM_MYPLEASURE
thomas woelfer
OK I may be missing something here.
If songs, books, performance, are examples of content, then sure, making them “free” may be possible. But I’m not sure which economic system would make content free, or whether unfettered freedom to plagiarize/copy/steal is actually desirable. Lessig, for instance, argues for limited copyright, not a banishment of user fees.
BTW, paying for suits is theoretically unnecessary as well…
Very good story comparing and contrasting the recent approach and success of the Sony and Samsung empires. It is clear to me that being burdened with a media arm, if you an electronics manufacturer is not a good idea.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/10/business/samsung.html
Sunday’s New Tork Times has an article on the content issue which reveals that more people read them online for free than buy from the newstand! This is replicated across the industry — and the thrust of the story, a discussion of how much of their content they can charge for? They really don’t get it, do they?