In his latest “Byte of the Mac” column for BusinessWeek, Alex Salkever draws historical comparisons between Apple’s Fair digital rights management technology and Microsoft’s more open policy with music downloads, and the original Mac/PC battle. “Sound familiar? Many computer-industry analysts believe Apple made a fatal error when it decided not to license its proprietary Macintosh operating system to other computer makers,” notes Salkever. “Apple wanted to own the whole chain — including software and hardware. Microsoft focused on the software alone, believing the more licensees, the merrier.”