As the world veers increasingly toward the Orwellian, a patent that Apple applied for back in 2009 has been approved. That patent is one that means the death of memory-capturing at concerts. Perhaps more than Orwellian, it’s Bradburian that the corporation has concocted a way for the iPhone camera to track light, including that of the infrared variety.
Thus, if musicians and music venues wanted to, they could rig an entire stage with undetectable infrared light to prevent audience members from videoing or photographing the show. On the one hand, yes, it’s quite annoying to look out in front of you and see a sea of blue light shining back, punctuating the point that all your fans are drones.
Nonetheless, they shelled out the dough to see your (probably overpaid) ass and therefore have some sense of entitlement regarding the desire to memorex the moment. For “the industry” and Apple to deny this previously technology-given right is more than somewhat egregious. Why bother even going to a show anymore if you’re one of the ones who used your phone to zoom in to make it look like you were closer than you actually were? You might as well wait for the YouTube footage to materialize. Or will that be decimated too as a result of this patent approval?
The bottom line is, concert goers of the twenty-first century aren’t trying to “live in the moment;” they just want to project a certain image of themselves to those following them on social media. So yeah, if this picture-blocking really happens, Apple may have just cost the music industry millions of dollars in ticket sales loss.
