• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

iPod users are "music thieves" says Steve Ballmer

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Ripclawe

Banned
http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39124642,00.htm

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."
Click to expand...
 
D

DarienA

The black man everyone at Activision can agree on
If iPod users are thieves then what about all the illegal copies of Windows floating around? ;)
 
dem

dem

Member
lol
I love how you people think Ballmer is stupid. I wish I was stupid like Steve Ballmer.
 
Chittagong

Chittagong

Gold Member
boohoo.jpg
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
Yeah and Xbox users are "game thieves" I guess since there are plenty of stolen games running in XBoxes today.
 
M

Meier

Member
My iPod has like 150 albums and less than 10 on it are pirated. Outside of a few anime singles, the number is under 5 actually.
 
A

ArcadeStickMonk

Member
Every album I've stolen for use with my iPod, and you must consider ripping from a friend's CD to be stealing for the number to be impressive, I've stolen with Windows. Funny how that works out.
 
R

retardboy

Member
Ballmer never said they were theives directly. He just said most of the music on ipods are stolen. He never denied that most of the music on windows based mp3 players weren't. He was just making a point that MS is trying very hard to make DRM protections so that in the future, mp3 players for Windows won't have stolen music, while Apple is doing nothing for DRM on MacOS.
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
iPod users are complete thieves paying money for their songs on iTunes.... by STEALING FROM POTENTIAL MICROSOFT BUSINESS.
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
john tv said:
Ballmer loves to repeat words, doesn't he.
Click to expand...

Yes, he shares that trait with Bush - if you keep saying the same thing over and over again, maybe people will eventually give up on reason and believe you so you'll just shut up :)
 
arter_2

arter_2

Member
copyright laws where never supposed to be what they are today they where suppossed to be short time and then the property would become free to the market.
 
C

cvxfreak

Member
Phoenix said:
Yeah and Xbox users are "game thieves" I guess since there are plenty of stolen games running in XBoxes today.
Click to expand...

Hell, Xbox is like an iPod you can't take around with you.
 
M

Manabanana

Member
If I were a musician, I'd be happy to know people liked my music. I'd be all about setting up a network where downloads were fast and easy AND I could keep track of how much people download my music. Incentive to buy an actual album should be in the packaging.
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
Manabanana said:
If I were a musician, I'd be happy to know people liked my music. I'd be all about setting up a network where downloads were fast and easy AND I could keep track of how much people download my music. Incentive to buy an actual album should be in the packaging.
Click to expand...
That and the whole uncompressed audio thing.
 
J

Jim Bowie

Member
Manabanana said:
If I were a musician, I'd be happy to know people liked my music. I'd be all about setting up a network where downloads were fast and easy AND I could keep track of how much people download my music. Incentive to buy an actual album should be in the packaging.
Click to expand...

Exactly. That, and supporting a band doesn't end at buying an album. If you like the music, you do something to support the band. You buy a shirt, go to a concert, buy a poster. Any little thing helps. Fuck, even joining a street team or telling all of your friends helps out a band. This is free advertising we're talking about.. something that buying the album and storing it away just doesn't do. The music industry works backwards hard.
 
G

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Heh anti-piracy in media player is a joke. whenever you rip a CD it asks you if you want to make it so you can share it with your friends.

He has the right idea though, the reason piracy is spreading so fast is that in most cases its actually easier to pirate than to buy.
 
S

shantyman

WHO DEY!?
Anyone who takes this clown seriously should read this:

http://daringfireball.net/2004/09/choose_microsoft

You Can Choose Any Color You Want, as Long as It’s Black


Friday, 3 Sep 2004

MSN Music help:



How can I get MSN Music downloads to play on my iPod?


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.



Let’s unspin this.

First, the Windows Media format is described as “popular”, but Apple’s “own format” (apparently AAC/FairPlay is that-which-shall-not-be-named in Redmond) is a “proprietary DRM” format. The truth is that all three words — popular, proprietary, and DRM — apply to both formats. But the only one they choose for themselves — “popular” — is the least apt for Windows Media, given that Apple’s AAC/FairPlay has 70 percent market share.

(Admittedly, there are millions of unprotected Windows Media audio files out there, and the iPod doesn’t play those either — but this FAQ is about the DRM-protected music you can buy from MSN Music, not Windows Media in general.)


The second paragraph could effectively be rewritten as:


There are more than 70 portable audio devices that depend on technology licensed and controlled by Microsoft today, and we hope that someday Apple gives up on their own market-leading technology, bends over, and uses ours.


The “consumer choice” championed by Microsoft involves no choice at all regarding:

Media format (Windows Media)

Operating system (Windows)

Web browser (Internet Explorer)



But other than that, Microsoft is all for choice.


Actual Help in the Help


Yesterday, this same page in the MSN Music help — regarding using MSN Music files with an iPod — had a completely different answer. It stated, in its entirety:



How can I get MSN Music downloads to play on my iPod?

Although Apple computers and Apple iPods do not support the PC standard WindowsMedia [sic] format for music, it is still possible to transfer MSN Music downloads to an iPod, but it will require some extra effort. To transfer MSN-downloaded music to an iPod, you need to first create a CD with the music, and then you need to import that CD into iTunes. This process will convert the music into a format that can play on the iPod.*We’re sorry that this isn’t easier - unfortunately Apple refuses to allow other companies to integrate with the iPod’s proprietary music format.*If you are an iPod owner already and unhappy about this policy, you are welcome to send feedback to Apple requesting that they change their interoperability policy.


It’s impossible to truly verify claims that a web page has been revised, but for what it’s worth, here’s a screenshot from yesterday. And if you don’t believe me, here’s Paul Thurrott quoting from the same page (right below a post in which he zings me (fairly) for yesterday’s off-base crack about Microsoft’s choice of Tuesday as the day of the week for announcing new music).

What’s curious about this modification is that this original answer was genuinely helpful — by following the above instructions, one can play music purchased from MSN on an iPod. But this truth is in contradiction to the talking points that the iPod is “incompatible” and “proprietary”.

It’s not as though this original answer was without spin: WindowsMedia [sic] is described as “the PC standard … format for music”. But it’s no more or less standard than AAC/FairPlay, unless you subscribe to the school of thought that standards are whatever Microsoft says are standards. Apple’s format is described with the pejorative “proprietary”, but AAC/FairPlay is no more or less proprietary than Windows Media. Plus, the claim that “Apple refuses to allow other companies to integrate with the iPod’s proprietary music format” is demonstrably false. HP now sells iPod hardware; Audible.com has partnered with Apple to sell protected audio content for iPods.

But still, at least this original answer actually answered the question. Help pages are more useful when they’re helpful, rather than spiteful.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Valve says "technology doesn't exist" yet for full Steam Deck 2.0 | Half-Life maker has several games targeting current hardware in pipeline
News Hardware
37
4K
Klosshufvud replied
"We observed Nvidia and decided to wait" (Chief Architect of Gaming at AMD)
2
64
4K
Kataploom replied
[GI.biz] The future of storytelling with Ken Levine
27
1K
mitch1971 replied
NYT: At Apple, Rare Dissent Over a New Product: Interactive Goggles [VR Headset]
34
4K
Celcius replied
[WSJ] Company Documents Show Meta’s Flagship Metaverse Falling Short
News Business
38
4K
StreetsofBeige replied
Top Bottom