The first post Steve Jobs move is something Steve Jobs wouldn’t do

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Also, Steve Jobs is still CEO.

Stick to criticizing Rupert.

I am no TechCrunch but I wager Google will buy Wolfram out this year

I’ll say around $3.2 billion.

I loved Mathematica when I was a undergrad – hope Google makes it free after they buy.

An example of Techdirt’s “smart” outfit that’ll replace paid news

Maybe this is what Mike Masnick had in mind:

What did Chevron do when it learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon rain forest in Ecuador? It hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view.

As a demonstration of just how far companies will go to counteract negative publicity, the Chevron case is extraordinary. Gene Randall, a former CNN correspondent, spent about five months on the project, which was posted on the Internet in April, three weeks before the “60 Minutes” report was shown on May 3.

“Chevron hired me to tell its side of the story,” he said. “That’s what I did.”

Not all content needs to be free

Good content sells, and not for free. This idea that everything can be free is nonsense:

Putting a paywall in the way of people, and they’ll find the content elsewhere. Put a paywall in front of good content, and it just opens up the opportunity for other, smarter, publications, to provide the news for free and run away with all the advertising money.

1. You can’t find the same content everywhere. There will be people who will make do with less quality, but there is no reason to worry about people who don’t value quality
2. “Other, smarter” – its not easy to duplicate the reach or the archive of some companies.

Techdirt used to argue that the RIAA and the MPAA shouldn’t worry about people who download music/movies because they may not be customers but they’ll be fans. Why doesn’t that apply to news?

Step back, Mike Masnick, you are too far in the muck to realize you are contradicting yourself.