Sarbanes-Oxley Act

[Nils Holland]

Hi folks,

well, it's old news I want to ask about in this message. In fact, the  
subject has probably been discussed to death already, however,  
unluckily I'm still not sure I understand it. So, the issue is this:

You'll all know that in order to use the 802.11n feature of newer C2D- 
based Macs, you'll have to buy a piece of software which enables said  
feature. (You could, in theory, also buy the latest AirPort base  
station, but we'll leave that one out of the question for now.) The  
fact that you have to pay for the "enabler" is, according to Apple,  
something called the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act". This thing has something  
to do with accounting, and doesn't easily allow you to add a new  
feature to a product you've already sold (and booked as revenue). So  
far, so good. Probably an extremely stupid law, but still something  
that one can understand. BUT...

Yeah, well, remember the 5G iPod? Last year, a *free* firmware update  
for that beast came along, adding a new feature, namely: Downloading  
and playing games. That happened although we had just learned that  
you cannot easily add a new feature to a product already sold. Hmmm.

Now, what I don't understand and would very much like to understand:  
What's the difference between the 802.11n update and the new iPod  
firmware here? I can imagine multiple possibilities:

1) The iPod actually played games before, namely the few that came  
with it. So playing games on the thing is not a new feature. On the  
other hand, a Mac could do wireless Internet access before, so 11n is  
not really a new feature either. Can't imagine this to make sense.

2) The new feature in the iPod firmware alone doesn't do anything -  
only when you buy a game it starts to make sense. So, probably, the  
accounting stuff is "officially" happening at the point you buy a  
game in the iTS?

3) The problem with the new iPod firmware and the 802.11n update is  
basically the same, however, in case of the iPod firmware Apple  
decided to go though all the accounting hassles associated with  
giving the update away for free, because it's actually in their best  
interest to have as many iPod users use the new firmware, because  
these users would then all be potential "game buyers" and thus would  
mean revenue for Apple. On the other hand, giving the 802.11n update  
away for free would have meant only accounting hassles and no new  
source of revenue.

Any ideas about this whole thing would be welcome!

Greetings,
Nils