ipodnn: general
12/15/2006, 6:35pm, EST
Friday, December 15th
Bill Gates: DRM 'causes pain' for users
Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates has said that he objects to current applications of digital rights management (DRM). The comment comes in spite of Microsoft's inclusion of DRM measures in the Zune and Windows Vista, however. Speaking at the Microsoft campus, Gates recently told a bloggers' convention that DRM restrictions "cause too much pain for legitimate users," hampering devices with arbitrary limits, and imposing usage rights that might not be understood. Gates further noted that he would rather consumers buy and rip music CDs for the time being, though he does believe that alternate business models are possible -- one suggestion was paying for unlimited access to an artist's songs, according to Electronista.
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What's good for the goose would be better for the Gater...eh gander I mean!
I have had to validate the SAME SONG on the SAME COMPUTER 3 times. I purchased a Mitch Hedberg cd. Harddrive died 8 days later, and apple would not let me redownload the SAME album that I had paid for.
There have been a number of times where if I didn't OWN the CD I would have lost my digital music forever. For some people this works, but for me it doesn't. I imagine this only getting worse with the video.
I could burn them to cd as soon as I get them, but the quality would be MUCH MUCH worse than cd
If he really means to be sympathetic about causing trouble for users, he wouldn't allow Windows to be so restrictive that it often keeps legitimate users from using it!
To add to intelligent comments made by some, this is a first in the many fingers to be pointed regarding bad zune sales. Once again, I give credit to Dell for admitting defeat in the music player market. This is something MS will never do. They will spend billions pushing this and will find some twisted way to call it successful or sweep in under the rug.
An example of each... Xbox lost money for the longest time. It is finally making money and I'll bet they call it successful, even though it likely isn't close to making back the money it cost.
An example of sweeping under the rug... remember how MS Movie Maker was going to be the best movie making experience and kill iMovie? what happened to that? Sweep, sweep...
Which way will the zune go? $$, $$, sweep, sweep...