If you are looking for live streaming video of the Apple special event happening today at 10 AM Pacific Time, look no farther than Apple’s own website. Apple is going to be streaming video live from the event on its website at http://www.apple.com/apple-events/october-2012/ and on Apple TV.

This is the first time in many years that Apple has allowed any video or audio from the event to sneak past the doors during the event. Some enterprising journalists have attempted to start live streams during the event, but have often been permanently blacklisted from Apple events in the future as a result.

I’ve discussed the reason why Apple didn’t allow or provide live streaming of its events in the past, but this change brings up new questions. Why now did Apple decide to provide a live video stream? Does Apple think this will increase interest in what might otherwise be an insignificant event, or do they expect this event is more significant than others, so more people should be able to hear it live? Is Apple unsatisfied with how the press has handled live blogs during the events and want to control the information flow themselves? And, of course, the question that journalists will continue to ask until the end of time, what would Steve have done?

These are all questions that we’ll never know the answer to, and, quite honestly, do they even matter? To the lives of most people, they won’t make any significant difference, but to the technology industry they could change how other companies do business. We’ve seen in the past few years more and more companies following Apple’s model of announcing products and services at special press events that are only for itself, instead of at major tech conferences like the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress. Could Apple be changing the game again?