Posted on 10/06/2004 2:49:05 PM PDT by Range Rover
iPod users are music thieves says Ballmer
October 04 2004
by Andy McCue
'Vested interest', say cynics...
Speaking to an exclusive gathering of press in London on a number of issues, such as security, Steve Ballmer didn't pass up the opportunity to take several digs at his company's arch rival Apple.
At the heart of the debate is Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology which will let content providers such as record labels and movie studios keep control of their intellectual property (IP) - or at least ensure all royalties are paid and copyright observed.
Billing Microsoft as the good guys and Apple the villains of the piece - at least as far as corporate America, rather than users, is concerned, Ballmer said: "We’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'."
"Part of the reason people steal music is money, but some of it is that the DRM stuff out there has not been that easy to use. We are going to continue to improve our DRM, to make it harder to crack, and easier, easier, easier, easier, to use," he said.
However, Ballmer conceded it isn't going to be an easy battle to win. "Most people still steal music," he said. "We can build the technology but there are still ways for people to steal music."
The Microsoft boss also claimed some domestic familiarity with the issue.
"My 12-year-old at home doesn’t want to hear that he can’t put all the music that he wants in all of the places that he would like it," he joked.
ZDNet UK's Michael Parsons contributed to this story
I've never met him but Ballmer does strike me as being a bit unhinged at times. The video of him jumping around the stage like an utter lunatic at some MS gathering is classic and anytime I see him mentioned ANYWHERE, that footage frames the context in which I read his quotes.
That said, he appears to be to Microsoft what James Carville is to the DNC. Microsoft's newest OS "Longhorn" is due to ship in '06 and one of the major "features" is to be a "comprehensive" Digital Rights Management scheme code-named PALLADIUM (now apparently named "Next-Generation Secure Computing Base for Windows").
One of the duties of this scheme is to provide "protection" for commercial data (read: video and audio) from the hardware level on up giving access to that data only to "trusted" hardware and software. Not trusted "users" but trusted hardware and software. Worrisome to some but a suspected boon to copyright holders is the possibility that MS and/or the copyright holder could remotely disable playback at will by determining MP3 and video players as well as optical drives and hard drives "untrustworthy" when they wish.
Enough doom and gloom about MS' DRM scheme. From what I've read, MS has promised that PALLADIUM will be opt-in but it seems pretty unlikely that content providers will ever allow high quality audio and video to legally reside on your PC without PALLADIUM as a mandatory requirement.
Ballmer's swipe at Apple and the iPod look to be the opening shots in a campaign to position MS as a more trusted distribution channel than Apple who obviously have the upper hand insofar as portable MP3 players is concerned. I have heard no rumors of MS launching an iPod competitor but pure speculation on my part tells me that there may be a future where Apple's iPod could be put on that "Not Trusted" hardware list in the future. MS has done similar things in the past by crippling third party software...could they be telegraphing such a move now by courting squeamish record labels and Hollywood with a warm and shiny thing called PALLADIUM?
Could they also be looking to cripple iTunes, Napster and other "Pay for Play" services or are they taking a verbally hard-line now looking to negotiate themselves into the revenue stream as a softer fallback?
Ballmer is the type that gives bald, egotistical, maniacs a bad name.
How can you call this 'unhinged'?
http://www.tarmo.fi/arc/monkeydance.mpeg
Screw you, Steve. You're just upset that iTunes and iPod are starting to erode the image of Microsoft as a computer OS.
Your forecast sounds quite plausible, though it seems it would entail a very risky MS strategy of aggravating it's consumer base in order to appease the media corporations.
"My 12-year-old at home doesn’t want to hear that he can’t put all the music that he wants in all of the places that he would like it," he joked.Your 12-year-old is more market-savvy than you are, you bald, shrieking ape.
of course they are...all Apple users are thiefs.
If I had his portfolio, I'd dance around like that, too.
sheesh...what a fruit loop. He's kinda scary.
Hmm..wonder what they think of the rest of us guys who are smart enough to get our tunes from Usenet? :)
Actually, iPod has eroded Apple's image as a computer company.
Should have said "Psychotic". No offense intended toward the mentally challenged.
If I'm not mistaken, Apple has a DRM scheme called "Fairplay" which attaches management to ACC-formatted files. Sounds to me like MS is a day late and a few dollars short but as long as they are the dominant OS, they can change the game. Internet Explorer Vs. Netscape?.
I have no particularly strong feelings against Apple though I find a lot of iPod and Mac users pretentious, preachy and generally of the Liberal political mindset...but this is just the kind of thing that turns people off to Microsoft (among a plethora of other complaints).
That video never gets old...
What's amazing is that he is still receiving applause at the end of it -- I can't believe the place wasn't silent.
Most people will follow like sheep anyway. Those who are fed up will seek alternatives and MS may just think that the disaffected were a natural loss.
The future is quite an interesting place.
"What's amazing is that he is still receiving applause at the end of it -- I can't believe the place wasn't silent."
It was probably like the old days of Stalin. Everyone was afraid to be the first one to stop applauding.
For the Usenet -challenged, archive.org is pretty cool.
Well, he did scream something to the effect of:
"Who told you to sit down!!!"
Speaking of the legal MP3 sites, I download hundreds of free tracks just to stick on my iPod and listen to. Most of them I end up deleting but I've found some really good music this way.
If iPod users are theives, what does that make Microsoft that pretty much stole every original idea out there....just ask Netscape!
I have, over a significant period of time, converted many of my LEGALLY PURCHASED CD's to ".mp3" format to keep on my computer. If I own an iPod and load those tunes, that makes me a thief/pirate? I don't think so.
Let's also take a look at the Microsoft DRM scheme - that is extremely easy to break. How is the MS scheme any more protective than any other? It's not.
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