As soon as Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 service was launched (see my earlier post), Yahoo! Music’s VP for product development Ian Rogers handed the music industry their collective DRM-laden ass on a platter:

But now, eight years later, Amazon™s finally done what was clearly the right solution in 1999. Music in the format that people actually want it in, with a Web-based experience that™s simple and works with any device. I bought tracks from Amazon (Kevin Drew and No Age), downloaded them, sync™d them to my new iPod Nano, and had them playing in my home audio system (Control 4) in less than five minutes. PRAISE JESUS. It only took 8 years.
8 years. How much opportunity have we lost in those 8 years? How much naivety and hubris did we have when we said, if we build it they will come? What did we spend? And what did we gain? We certainly didn™t gain mass user adoption or trust, two prerequisites to success on the Internet.

That’s the most heart-warming ‘Kiss my ass’ I’ve heard in a very long time.