The Gibson Safety Dance, named for sci-fi author William Gibson, involves companies changing their software simply to keep other programs from accessing it.

It's increasingly common. We've seen it in Instant Messaging, we saw it recently with Microsoft Office, and now we're seeing it with Apple's iTunes.

Jan Johansen, the Norwegian programmer who wrote DeCSS so he could play DVDs under Linux, has entered the fray with a program that breaks the iTunes DRM so Linux users can buy them from the Apple store. Apple's response has been to change the software and keep this from happening.

The Apple change is not a fix. It provides no user benefits. In fact it reduces funcationality. It is being done only to maintain control of a market. It's not done for your safety, but for Apple's.

You can get a study guide to Neuromancer, the Gibson book that inspired me to name this dance after him, from Washington State University. Or get your own copy of the mass market paperback, whose primitive DRM causes the pages the yellow with time and to fall out when the book is read too often. Or dance the night away to the original Men Without Hats song on this collection.

Your choice.