[JPL] AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

[Jazz Promo Services]

Excellent feature in the July Vanity Fair on the History of the Internet:

AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET
How the Web Was Won

Excerpt

Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 to help revive its sagging fortunes.
Among his early initiatives: the iMac, a one-piece, candy-colored computer
that made easy Internet use the cornerstone of its design. Four years later,
Apple introduced the iPod and the online music store iTunes. For the music
business, already reeling from widespread piracy, it was an embarrassing
blow. The persona and outlook of Steve Jobs were parodied in the popular
blog the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs; its author was eventually revealed to
be a Forbes writer named Daniel Lyons.

Fake Steve Jobs: All these music companies saw this coming years ago‹they
saw digital distribution coming. The genie was out of the bottle when they
started doing CDs and distributing digital music that could be copied
anyway, right?

They saw digital downloads coming; they saw Napster; they knew that they had
to create a legal and workable alternative. And if you could do one that was
easy to use and simple, you know, the bet was that people would pay for it,
if you made it, you know, convenient. But the record guys were all either
stupid or lazy or frightened, and just sat there with their thumbs up their
ass and, like, couldn¹t get out of their own way to figure out how to do it.
Or each one wanted to do their own store, or whatever.

But I really think that Apple came along and took all the risk. Apple said,
O.K., we¹ll invest in making this hardware device and in making a store, and
running that store, and making all these deals, and working with all you
scumbags and assholes in the music business. We¹ll put on our asbestos suit
and deal with you people, right, to be able to, like, sit in the same room
and breathe the same air that you criminals in the music industry, you
retarded criminals, do, right?


Full Story here:  
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/07/internet200807