June 10, 2005
MS Takes on the Less Relevant Half of Interop Problem
Ernest has a great post up
about MS moves in the subscription music arena. Apparently, MS is
considering allowing users to re-download for free in WMA any content
they’ve acquired in FairPlay-locked iTunes Music Store format. Ernest
is right on regarding the barriers to entry created by DRM and the
DMCA, something I have also refused to shut up about.
But here’s the missing piece of this whole MS move: they’re taking on
the far less relevant half of the interoperability problem. The more
important half is gaining interop with the iPod. People want to be able
to take their WMA-locked and, in particular, their Janus-locked content
and put it onto an iPod. This idea from MS does nothing to solve
that problem. To do that, they’d have to get Apple to license
WMA, or come up with a Harmony-like solution, or convince record labels to license content in MP3. Are any of those likely?
Filed by Derek Slater at 10:40 pm under General news
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