Microsoft’s Golden Chains…Its Golden Tentacles…
Hey kids! Microsoft’s super good music player, Zune, is becoming Double More user friendly!!!
Information Week:
Users of the portable media player can now download friends’ nine most recently played songs, as well as nine tunes flagged as favorites.
Microsoft, which trails far behind Apple in the portable media player market, tried to narrow the gap Tuesday with the release of new technology that enables Zune users to share more of their music libraries with friends.
The latest update to the Zune software that synchronizes the player with a person’s music library on the PC and Microsoft’s online store reflects how Microsoft is hoping to grab market share from the Apple iPod by encouraging Zune users to build online social networks. Microsoft last November launched a music community Web site called Zune Social, where users could browse each other’s playlists and share opinions on songs and bands.
Neato!
PC Week:
Microsoft Looks to Social Networking for Zune 2.0
Along with the three new Zune players, including Microsoft’s first-ever flash-based model, Microsoft announced a new community site, dubbed Zune Social that it will fire up as beta in November. According to Microsoft, Zune owners can automatically share their current playlists with friends using a Zune-to-Zune Social sync.
That sync will rely on user-made profiles that Microsoft’s calling Zune Cards; other Zune owners will be able to view a friend’s Card, then play short samples of those tracks and/or buy the tunes at the also-redesigned Zune MarketPlace online store. The sharing concept isn’t new, as several services — notably iLike — already promote something similar.
"Microsoft must find a way to grow the coolness of the Zune," said JupiterResearch’s Michael Gartenberg. "This isn’t a bad strategy, and at least it’s found a way to differentiate from Apple."
Super Cool! And…oh look…here’s another way they can differentiate themselves from Apple…
Microsoft May Build a Copyright Cop Into Every Zune
If you like to download the latest episodes of “Heroes” or other NBC shows from BitTorrent, maybe you shouldn’t buy a Microsoft Zune to watch them on.
A future update of the software for Microsoft’s portable media player may well include a feature that will block unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos from being played on it.
…
Late Tuesday afternoon I reached J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, to ask why NBC found Microsoft’s video store more appealing than Apple’s.
He explained that NBC, like most studios, would like the broadest distribution possible for its programming. But it has two disputes with Apple.
First, Apple insists that all TV shows have an identical wholesale price so that it can sell all of them at $1.99. NBC wants to sell its programs for whatever price it chooses.
Second, Apple refused to cooperate with NBC on building filters into its iPod player to remove pirated movies and videos.
Microsoft, by contrast, will accept NBC’s pricing scheme and will work with it to try to develop a copyright “cop” to be installed on its devices.
…
Mr. Perrette said the plan is to create “filtering technology that allows for playback of legitimately purchased content versus non-legitimately purchased content.”
He said this would be similar to systems being tested by Microsoft, Google and others that are meant to block pirated clips from video sharing sites. NBC is also working with Internet service providers like AT&T to put similar filters right into the network.
…
Adam Sohn, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to discuss details of this effort other than to say that the software company is exploring anti-piracy measures with NBC. He said Microsoft, which suffers from its own piracy problems, is sympathetic to Hollywood’s concerns.
Let me unpack that for you: NBC agreed to let its content be sold by Microsoft, because Microsoft is willing to make it’s products block the playback of unauthorized copies. They’re talking about videos there, but does anyone doubt for a moment that same technology will be used to prevent the playback of music too. And remember, The Music Industry Regards Copying From CDs To Players Like The iPod As Theft.
Microsoft is going to help the industry make that impossible. If they can get the technology developed, the industry will then press congress to make it manditory. Never doubt it.
Oh…wait… Microsoft says it’s all been a terrible mistake…
In the Zune Insider Blog, Cesar Menendez, a member of Microsoft’s Zune team, refers to this post, and the blog discussion it prompted. He writes:
We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.
Microsoft, let it be said, is second to no one in its skill at deploying tactical syntax. Let’s unpack all the weasel words in that statement, shall we? We have no plans… Right. Why not say "We will not…"? as opposed to "We have no plans…" How about, "We are not in the planning stage, but the proof of concept stage." Any new type of content filtering… Why not just say "Any content filtering"? New Type? Fine. They already have something on the drawing boards. It isn’t new. As part of our content distribution deal with NBC. Fine. But that isn’t the only deal you have with NBC is it? So are you developing any content filtering, based on an already existing "type", apart from any deals you may have made with NBC, or anyone else…? Do you have any internal efforts directed at content filtering or blocking?.
No…no… It’s just not possible to get straight answers out of Microsoft if they don’t want to give you any. And besides, all you need is to look at Windows Vista to see how devoted Microsoft is to DRM.
Windows Vista is the bloated pig it is, in large measure because of all the DRM technology packed into it. Vendors are having nightmares getting it to work with hardware because of the DRM requirements Vista imposes and Redmond mandates. Your video and audio circuitry must literally have no possible point on it for a user to tap a signal from before it can be certified and Vista will allow the highest quality signals through it. Otherwise it cripples the output. That Redmond would develop technology to allow the music and film industries to control what you can and can not play on your own playback devices is as unsurprising, as the fact that they’ll be deploying it on paltforms running their software with or without the owner’s consent.
They say that men don’t change, they reveal themselves. Once upon a time I made my living programming exclusively on Microsoft platforms. And I felt proud to be a part of a revolution that was bringing power, as the slogan of my generation went, to the people. But empowering the common folk was never what Bill was in it for. He just wanted to own the world. Bill Gates is to computer technology what Mao was to government. He spoke the language of revolution, he posed as a friend of the common people against the powerful. He told them he was about returning to them the power that was rightfully theirs. The computers would be taken out of the big data processing centers and put right there on your own desktop. Your data would belong to you, not big business or big government. Information you need would be directly accessible to you. Bill Gates promised the world would be at your fingertips. And if he really meant that, I wouldn’t care if he was ten times as rich as he is. Instead, he became one of the biggest despots the world ever saw. Your computer belongs to him now. And to his friends in the penthouse board rooms. Men don’t change, they reveal themselves. Here’s to the new boss…
[Edited a tad…]
