Is it just me or have we entered bizarro world? Bill Gates (yes, that Bill Gates) says he's unhappy with the current state of DRM. TechCrunch writes, "Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which "causes too much pain for legitmate buyers" while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are "huge problems" with DRM, he says, and "we need more flexible models, such as the ability to "buy an artist out for life" (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific."
That's all great Billy but, we should remind you that PlaysForSure doesn't exactly fit the model of DRM bliss, and the Zune's proprietary DRM model is certainly not the way to go. Pretending to be the friend of the anti-DRM lobby and encouraging people to rip CDs is all well and good but, can you maybe spend just a small part of your 200 development and research budget actually backing up what you're spouting during press events?
1. Well, you've got to be a bit more fair to the man...He doesn't really do much at Microsoft these days, and hasn't for a while, so it's not really his call.
And the DRM that's incorporated into microsoft products like the Zune and Vista is demanded by the music/movie industry. If they didn't implement them, they would encounter a significant obstacle in gaining market share for those products.
Posted at 10:09AM on Dec 19th 2006 by Chris