Planned Obsolescence

Never quite finished this though, but I'm posting it anyway. I had this flash of a thought while driving home yesterday, and while some won't think it very insightful, I felt the need to write about it anyway. It seems that most modern media companies are predicated on planned obsolescence. This includes audio, video, and software. What doesn't fit into this realm is print media -- books. Books have had to contend with the same copyright issues as other media, yet they have not suffered the wrath of obsolescence -- I can still read a book that was published well over a hundred years ago (granted that I understand the language). When it comes to modern media, there as always been the issue of the player and compatibility. Edison used it quite successfully for both audio (phonograph) and video (film). In my lifetime, audio has transferred from vinyl records though cassette media, up to CDs, and now the publishers are pushing both Super Audio CDs and DVD-Audio. Granted, technology has made the newer recordings a richer experience, but this has also left the industry with a great taste of planned obsolescence. They can make more money off selling the same content on new media than they can making new content. Books don't suffer this fate, because they never become unreadable. There is a thriving business selling old books. Old media also has this trade, but try finding an Edison-compatible recording in one of those places. DRM, or Digital Rights Management, restricts this transfer of media in the all-software age of audio. Old software also becomes harder to read -- does anyone have a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive any more? How about an 8 inch floppy drive? I think this is one of the prime reasons behind the open source software movement. If the platform developed on becomes scarce, then the software can at least be ported. This isn't true of binary-only software, because the developer is most likely long gone. Emulation is the trick in this case, but the software itself will never evolve. And software was meant to evolve. And this is why people are so concerned with open source software. To preserve rights to their data both now and in the future. The Word lock-in forces you to keep a copy of the software in working condition in order to keep access to your data.