Microsoft's motives are pretty simple really. I don't believe they are worried about not complying and facing lawsuits from copyright owners for providing systems that do not support DRM. Microsoft want a piece of the action. Whether it is their Zune music store, Xbox Live TV and movie downloads, or some future ITMS style product for the PC/Vista - Microsoft wants to be onside with the music and movie companies so that they can get at some of the revenues.
Apple did the same - the iTunes music store (ITMS) and (to a lesser extent, the iPod) only exist because Steve Jobs implemented the Fairplay (sic) DRM mechanism. If he hadn't, none of the copyright holders would have allowed him to sell their media. As consumers, we only have a couple of options. 1. Go along with it and face a future where your purchased music, movies etc will only play on "Brand X's" hardware (who reserve the right to change your terms of use post-purchase - look how iTunes got tighter and tigher). 2. Vote with your wallet. In terms of music, buy the media! Stay away from the pay-to-use model. If you own the CD, you can do what you want with it. 3. Fair-use rights. These are being eroded as we speak and Vista/HD is a great example. In the UK, we still have no fair-use rights and, technically, it is illegal to rip your own purchased CDs to MP3. If you have the desire to (and the storage space), HD DVD has been broken now and you can make your own "backups" too. Toe the line or bend the rules. I know what I'll be doing. -- nano2nd ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nano2nd's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=873 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32261 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
