[evh7]

Steve Ballmer waxes poetic about how iPod owners are thieves ... and how "we've had DRM in Windows for years":

Read the story on The Register.

 

[Kirosia]

Funny stuff. Besides, I'd have figured most ipod owners buy/rip their music legit.
Microsoft is just throwing a hissy fit.

OT but I think wma and wmp (except for classic) suck donkey balls.

 

[blessingx]

Does the sentence "The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'" even make sense?

 

[bahamaman]

One of two options:

1. The statement was made in the early morning hours after an all night drunk, or,

2. He just isn't able to come to terms with the fact that Microsoft is a virtual non-factor in a hugely lucrative market. Microsoft didn't just miss the portable player boat, they didn't even know it was in port!

And BTW, there isn't a single illegal file on my iPod.

 

[psychogentoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx Does the sentence "The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'" even make sense?

The most common format of music on Windows which populates the iPod is stolen? Does that make more sense?

 

[stigweard]

http://www.macboy.com/cartoons/ballmer/

Somehow, it seems appropriate. And for those who haven't seen the original, look no further. (Right click and choose save as...)

http://www.ntk.net/media/dancemonkeyboy.mpg

 

[StevieDvd]

Whew!

Thought for a minute that there was another new format that everyone was using but me!

Stolen = lossy compression often with LAME EXCUSE.

 

[Sledge]

Typical Microsoft FUD. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

 

[null]

Yeah, it's all BS.

 

[Gandhi]

Meh.....

As someone said earlier, Ballmer is just pouting becuse his company missed the party

 

[GuineaMcPig]

Wow...just watched the 2nd video posted of Ballmer's speech to Microsoft investors/employees/whoever. That was actually kind of frightening. He looked like he was either on speed or drunk, or possibly both. It wouldn't give me a whole lot of confidence as an investor knowing that the company was run by a coked-out fratboy.

 

[Edwood]

DRM just punishes the actual consumers that actually pay for their music.

I won't buy a portable player that doesn't allow me to drag and drop.

-Ed

 

[Edwood]

If the RIAA really wanted to win a big victory, they need to try to turn everyone they can into obsessed audiophiles.

Although, as soon as a better quality is a standard, I guess larger bandwidth will help make up for it, and the RIAA will be back to square one.

But imagine if they were to innovate and fully adopt a higher resolution standard?

Oh, wait. They're too busy suing everyone.

-Ed

 

[kugino]

something else you missed in his interview...ballmer said that "there is no way that you can get there with Apple. The critical mass has to come from the PC, or a next-generation video device." this is in reference to whether apple can do the home video-audio-computer well enough to actually make a difference...i guess his feeling is that since MS wasn't able to do it, no one can...

 

[intlplby]

i'll be the first to admit that the majority of my music is 'illegal'

but a lot of it isn't and 90% of what I rightfully own I never would have bought had I never downloaded and listened to an illegal copy first.....

i end up buying a lot of what i download....

i end up paying for them for 2 reasons:

1) better sound quality.... illegally downloaded music is usually pretty crappy since most people dont rip well

2) the overwhelmingly majority of my music is from artists who aren't on big labels and i don't mind paying for artists on small labels



i think a lot of people would agree that they would spend considerably less on music if they didn't have the opportunity to listen to a whole album through before buying it....... borrowing from friends isn't an option since i am well ahead of all of them as far as listening tastes

i also have a lot of music that is illegal but that i cannot get legal copies of because they are out of print or because it is really difficult to get copies of the music in the US in the case of foreign music


in the end though, i do make a conscious effort to buy the music i listen to