There are only two chairs for Jobs to be sitting in during this discussion - as a distributor of other of people's products (millions of them, literally), or as a content provider whose entire holdings are made up of a relatively small number of products. The second chair is the position of every single person he's trying to negotiate a deal with right now. Relating to them would be a very good strategy, and, to this point, they have proven so paranoid that I doubt they would speak with anyone who didn't agree with them up front. Is that the way it's going to be in the end? I hope not. But you have to get them talking before any compromises can be made, and Steve is currently in the position of 'the enemy conspirator' to these people: he is the one man who has already proven that he has the resources to package and deliver their goods right into the hands of those who would illegally exploit them (regardless of the fact that these very people they are afraid of are their own consumers). Do we know what his real position is? no. Neither does the film industry. But his public statements are at least enough to allow them to meet officially without either side losing face among their film industry peers (Jobs showed long ago what he thinks about the opinions of others in the computer industry.). I'm not terribly optimistic about the final outcome of this fight, but I don't think that his statement signifies a draconian policy change on his or Apple's part.
