Speaking wth a small group of bloggers at his company’s Redmond campus during the company’s Mix n’ Mash 07 junket, Microsoft’s Bill Gates offered the opinion that he didn’t think anyone had gotten DRM technology “right” yet, and said he hoped the technology would evolve more flexible usage models, move away from device-specific intelligence, and cause less trouble for consumers.
Digital rights management, or DRM technology, is use to restrict copying and illegal piracy of digital media such as music and video. Microsoft is itself a primary developer of DRM technologies used by music services like Napster, Urge, and Yahoo Music, as well as movie download services. Microsoft recently introduced a new form of DRM technologies with its Zune media players. Apple’s iPods and iTunes music store use a different, incompatible DRM technology.
Gates’ comments were covered by several blogs, including TechCrunch and Micro Persuasion.
According to Michael Arrington on TechCrunch, Gates’ advice for people wanting to transfer music easily from one system to another until DRM issues are sorted out was to “buy a CD and rip it.” A bold statement for a man who’s globally-watched company is deep in bed with music and video distributors deathly concerned digital technology is destroying their business.
