WHY’D’YA HAVE TO GO AND MAKE THINGS SO COMPLICATED?

“Any time you raise a complicated issue, you’re going to have opposing views. We are not forcing anyone to do anything; we are just providing another choice.”

RealNetworks chief strategy officer Richard Wolpert, on his company’s failed attempt to rally public opinion against Apple, Wired News, 23 August 2004

AS LONG AS MICROSOFT DOESN’T BUNDLE IT, THAT IS

“We live in a quicksilver technological environment with courts ill-suited to fix the flow of Internet innovation.”

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who seems to have changed his mind on such matters from the days of the Microsoft trial, ruling in a file-sharing case, Newsday, 20 August 2004

UNDERPRICING YOUR STOCK: $684 MILLION. DAY-OF-IPO PUBLICITY: PRICELESS

“[Google’s] other big mistake was that if they had priced this at $50 or $60, then all of a sudden if the company was trading at $85 of $100, they could have really built momentum.”

Internet entrepreneur Mark Pincus, displaying the math skills he honed during the dotcom bubble, The New York Times, 19 August 2004

AND THEN HELPED YOU SHOPLIFT THEIR RECORDS AT THE MALL

“Music blogs in general remind me of that friend you had in high school who would turn you on to the best bands.”

Warner Music new media executive Robin Bechtel, on sending free song files to bloggers for posting, The New York Times, 16 August 2004

REAL UNBALANCED

“I kind of feel like Apple Computer is playing the same role on this that Bill O’Reilly played in ‘Fair and Balanced.'”

RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, on his ham-handed attempts to get Apple to support his proprietary music format on the iPod, News.com, 17 August 2004