DRM is getting messier and messier while seeming sillier and sillier.

Jason Calacanis joked last week in his blog that he might, in his newly found spare time, start developing a “better iPod.”

Now, if you don't know Jason, you might treat this as a joke.

I wouldn't, if I were you.

Jason is, well, Jason, and God bless him for it, but … the conversation has started. And, in Jason's words,

Peter responded to it (and did a followup), and then Dave Winer (the genius behind RSS and OPML) chimed in. Now Michael Gartenberg from Jupiter has chimed in, and what was a fantasy has now turned into a feasibility study.

He's got some people talking, as they say. Conversation about what is really important is always good.

He's now proposing an open source player with Wifi, no DRM, removeable media (i.e. compact flash) that's preloaded with three shows from the top 200 podcasts. He's even open to removable batteries if that makes sense.

I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I might buy 2.

He suggests they presell 1,000 of them and get them made. Then 10k, and get those made, then 100k, etc.

I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Would you?

Why does this sound more viable to me than Zune v2 right now – or iPod content I can use with something non-Apple?

Technorati Tags: jason calacanis, drm

Last updated by Paul Colligan at November 30, 2006.