September 6, 2004
MS: On Second Thought, Put On These Handcuffs
Farhad Manjoo has a nice article up about the new MSN Music Store (via Frank). At the very end, he notes a somewhat predictable turn of events: MS changed the language, noted by Fred, that advocated burning DRM-locked songs onto CD and then re-ripping into another, possibly unencrypted format. It now reads simply:
“Unfortunately Apple refuses to support the popular Windows Media format on the iPod, choosing to only support their own proprietary DRM format. If you are an iPod owner and are unhappy about this, please send feedback to Apple and ask them to change their policy and interoperate with other music services. There are more than 70 portable audio devices that support MSN Music today, and we hope that someday Apple decides to join with the industry and support consumer choice.”
70 devices: wow! I mean, Microsoft has picked them all out for me ahead of time, probably put a little red bow on them, too. What would I need interoperability and independent consumer choice for when Microsoft can shepherd me to approved devices?
Apparently. the businessmen had a chat with the techies. I wonder if anyone raised their hand and reminded others that Windows Media DRM is also proprietary. Manjoo contacted Rob Bennett, the senior director of MSN Entertainment, who wrote back:
“I’m reviewing the language on the preview site now…. We absolutely don’t want to encourage people to circumvent the usage rights for music downloads. It is unfortunate that Apple still disables Windows Media support in the iPod (the firmware they license from PortalPlayer actually supports WMA but they turn it off), restricting their customers’ choice of where they download music. Our approach is very different, encouraging broad choice of many music services and many portable audio devices with the Windows Media format.”
Filed by Derek Slater at 1:30 pm under General news
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