September 17, 2006
Next, a bookshelf that automatically attaches a little chain to any book you put on it
Any vague curiosity I had about whether I might prefer the new Microsoft MP3 player to another iPod has been burned off with the discovery that the Microsoft Zune adds DRM to every song you store on it.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Posted by Francis at 10:53 AMFrom what we've been told, it looks like the DRM is "added" to music transferred from Zune to Zune, not to music on the Zune or on the computer. I would imagine that this would actually be accomplished by converting a copy of the file to some new proprietary format, which is transferred instead. The "viral" name is inappropriate since there doesn't appear to be any transmission of the DRM (the original file seems unchanged, and the restricted file can't "procreate").
So, what it comes down to at the moment is that the Zune will allow you to share music under very limited circumstances while the iPod isn't set up to allow at all. I'm still interested to see how the apparent conflict in rights agreements will be dealt with, but this is much ado about little. Given Boing Boing's recent track record on technology, I'm not surprised.
So really, it isn't a bookshelf with chains; it's a bookshelf with a copy machine that prints out those self-destructing Mission Impossible messages.
Posted by: Tablesaw at September 18, 2006 01:20 AM