My problem with the iPad is that it's more closed than it needs to be. Ah, but it's not if you want to sell content. As most jailbroken iPhone users show, the

My problem with the iPad is that it's more closed than it needs to be. Ah, but it's not if you want to sell content. As most jailbroken iPhone users show, the first order of business is to download every app that sounds interesting - for free. Now, I am not anti-piracy. Applications have often become popular through piracy, and that results in eventual conversions. But in the past, the default has been a lack of protection with great effort required to enforce copyright. This favors the establishment who has the capital to develop protections and enforce them. The iPhone/iPad is a different model, where commerce is the default. Want to sell a $1 app? Trivial. Want in-app commerce? Trivial. Where once you had to build a web service that required 24/7 support, you can now build a standalone product and be done. This is the lone developers dream. But it is also the hobbyist's nightmare, and that's why the makers are up in arms. Since we happen to be hanging out in their camp, it sounds like this is an unnecessary evil, preventing us from "owning" our devices! But really, you need to see both sides to this: by enforcing copy protection by default, Apple has created a panacea for the starving developer. Write something good, something useful, something fun, and you will get paid by the masses. And when it's all said and done, you don't even have to use one yourself.