Jon Alper's probably insufficiently humble opinion

Engadget Reports:  HDCP ‘master key’ supposedly released, unlocks HDTV copy protection permanently

******UPDATE******* 9.16.10 Intel Confirms the leak is genuine.

******UPDATE******* 9.29.10 And now, BSD licensed Open Sourced HDCP Encryption/Decryption Code

If this proves to be true and then widely exploited, a whole lot of HDTV’s and BluRay players and discs will be compromised.

Compromised as in; A good compromise with consumers wherein they are licensed content they can keep for personal use with the freedom to migrate to new or more convenient playback platforms. Compromise that still means users must still abide by license terms that bar them from selling or giving away copies or using excerpts beyond the bounds of what is permitted by the rules of fair use. Compromise that increases laggard sales of BluRay content?  Just like removing DRM from iTunes music lead to increased sales and price support?

You know, compromise where both parties benefit in a reasonable and balanced way.

My friend Bob has put up a blog focusing on issues of Web Metrics and he’s got some interesting things to say: “Conventional Wisdom Frequently Isn’t” .

Central to that post and touched upon in several other of his posts is the notion that what people so often think are universally important metrics are often antithetical to what the users of an individual site may want.

Therefore, if chasing the wrong metric, how successful is that site is in meeting a need? If the site doesn’t meet users’ needs, they won’t be back; they won’t link to you, recommend you, or buy stuff from your site, or any of your advertisers. Assuming the goals are commercial of course. If they’re non-commercial, how good a service is it? How likely are donations?

Bob’s insights into metrics are a useful read.

Go…shoo…read…bring back some Ben and Jerry’s when you’re done. 😉