American Green Inc (ERBB)

[neilbolton]

This doesn't seem a strong endorsement of continuing with copy protection - CDs or devices. In fact it looks like acknowledging they took the wrong direction. I know it's Stringer from Sony talking, not Sony-BMG, but Sony wields a big stick in the music partnership.

Stringer admits that looking at one of Apple's iPods hurts, a major symbol of where Sony went off the tracks.

"There’s no question that the iPod was a wakeup call for Sony. And the answer is that Steve Jobs was smarter at software than we are," he says.

Stringer says Steve Jobs came up with the iPod and iTunes, a simple system for people to download music — while Sony, worried about its record company — wasted precious time trying to figure out how to keep people from stealing songs.

"We tried to have a secure device. And that was a myth," says Stringer. "And a mistake. Sad for the music company, mind you."