smart tags as consumer control

The interesting thing about the fact that everybody objected to Smart Tags back when Microsoft wanted to include them as an option in Internet Explorer 6 is that all of the web designers (and, mind you, it was designers, with their reflexive control-freak holier-than-thou "I'm an artist, dammit, stop defiling my work!" attitudes) who objected to Smart Tags are also people who feel that they should be able to rip, mix, and burn the audio content on CDs they buy without the RIAA or its cronies interfering.

I wanted my browser to be able to rip, mix, and burn web pages. But those crybaby hypocrites ruined it.

I'm Anil Dash, and I've been blogging here since 1999, writing about how culture is made. Contact me at anil@dashes.com, at +1 646 833 8659, or at anildash on Twitter or IM. Find out more »

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