1. I agree that Apple's behavior here was less than perfect. However, I can count the number of times I've had the opportunity to fix a serious legality-related code problem slowly, progressively, and in an enlightened manner on the fingers of my left unicorn horn. While we are all making guesses, my guess is that a memo came down from Apple Legal or Apple Executive demanding an instant fix, and the engineers scrambled to solve the problem. Think the engineers talk back to Steve Jobs much?

1a. 'Period...end of story' doesn't apply yet, because the deeply critical, nation-riveting story of the $50 iTunes software is not done yet. Perhaps Apple will release a 4.0.2 that includes the password-protection feature you suggested.

2. Agreed, Apple engaged in egregious bullshit a la Microsoft continually talking about their "great software". And indeed they've always done this ("the G4 is the world's first personal supercomputer", and so forth), as has every other corporation on the planet.

So why are they 'force feeding customers shit'? Not because of their corporate marketspeak, but because some twits got incredibly outraged at their own misbegotten belief that Apple was trying to Change The World. Apple is not wrapped up in your flag, Apple is wrapped up in their flag. Their flag is the hot sweet green heat-mirage-shimmering sweat-stained Vegas-smelling flag of American corporate capitalism.

Cory "a corporation made me eat excrement" Doctorow, as a wannabe champion of the geeks, should know better. Maybe he does by now.