Those awaiting a clever connection between the two topics might as well hit BACK now.

Another move showing Apple's comfortable without DRM:

Bloomberg reports that customers who purchased the iPhone in Germany after November 19th may have their iPhone unlocked for free. Existing German iPhone customers can reportedly also receive the unlock for a fee.
...
This introduces legitimate unlocked iPhones into the marketplace that will presumably withstand future iPhone software updates.


Interesting. I don't know enough about cell phones, so perhaps unlocking phones is pretty trivial on any cell platform, but at the very least this quick swap suggests to me Apple planned to have an unlocked iPhone, at least as a plan B, essentially from the start. Of course, what does Apple care? (Apparently about $900 a unit.)

Also had someone show me that the first season of WKRP in Cincinnati has, in spite of its inherent trouble of containing loads of music that must be licensed, been released on DVD. Two things of note. First, the music has, in large degree, been changed. I wonder if the changes don't favor tunes for which FOX owns the licenses. Second, the collection contains the syndicated (and therefore apparently slightly shorter) versions of the shows. I wonder if the two together don't mean that we can finally expect to see the show on broadcast (or cable) again soon.

I kinda like this user review from Amazon:


12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Fox Corporate marketing ruins an experience, September 14, 2007
By commonman "tampadad3" (Tampa, Florida USA) -

Thanks for NOTHING FOX! Years I've waited for the chance to see the WKRP show again, and what happens - Fox decides we gotta sell it for $ 19.95 cause, well, gee, that's a magic number isn't it? And so to ensure to sticker price meets some marketing guru's vision, they make a DVD with elevator music and cut out not only the original songs, but too much of the dialog and scenes that occurred during the songs.


If my wild guess is right, Mr. tampadad3 is simply thinking too small. It's one thing to buy the rights for a few hundred (ha) thousand DVD sets, and another to get a package ready for rebroadcast.

I don't see anyone complaining about the quality of the DVD either. Perhaps it really did get a good cleanup on its way back to the [video] air?

So there we go... As I always say, copyright weirds language or loves David Hasselhoff or something.