Zune spokesman: Jobs "irresponsible, or at the very least naïve"
An article at today's New York Times allowed Jason Reindorp, Zune marketing director for Microsoft, to rebut Steve Job's open letter on DRM with some fairly harsh quotes. He calls Jobs' suggestion that the music industry might license their offerings without DRM, "irresponsible, or at the very least naïve...It's like he's on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we're here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen..." Reindorp called Jobs a "master of the obvious", suggesting that DRM restrictions are already loosening within the music industry. Once again, we are grateful to Microsoft spokesmen for letting us know how music sales should be properly done.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nik Fletcher said 5:43PM on 2-07-2007
Perhaps he's making the statements because he is on top of the mountain, Zunesters. And I'd hardly call throwing a buck a Zune to each label being 'on the ground working with the industry making it happen'. I'd call it selling yourselves out to make a deal at any price.
Reply
CT said 6:20PM on 2-07-2007
Whine, whine, whine.... Microsoft didn't see the music elephant in the room and blew it (not that they wouldn't have anyway even if they did) and now, despite having 20/20 hindsight and playbook, they STILL CAN'T!
Two words: iPod Envy.
Reply
Hobofuzz said 6:30PM on 2-07-2007
"Zune spokesman: Jobs "irresponsible, or at the very least naïve"
Yet his company has met with considerable success these past years...
Uh huh, whatever you say Microsoft.
Reply
tnkgrl said 7:19PM on 2-07-2007
"It's like he's on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we're here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen..."
Well, duh! That's pretty much how it is - Steve *is* on top of the mountain and you're on the ground, you Microsoft dumbass...
Reply
tnkgrl said 7:19PM on 2-07-2007
"It's like he's on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we're here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen..."
Well, duh! That's pretty much how it is - Steve *is* on top of the mountain and you're on the ground, you Microsoft dumbass...
Reply
Cory G said 7:33PM on 2-07-2007
Microsoft is just on the defensive - because everything they do is considered a copy stolen from somebody else. You can see all their management getting frustrated - from Gates over people comparing Vista to OSX to the Zune coming a distant second (if they got that high) to the iPod.
Gates is losing it - Dell and Microsoft are too. Macintosh's market share is up (HP's market share is up also) at the cost of Microsoft and Dell. In January Macintosh reached a 6.22% market share (up from 4.33 in August and 5.67% in December)
source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2
Reply
required said 8:02PM on 2-07-2007
Zune might be third, the PSP is actually second
http://www.pspfanboy.com/2006/10/17/psp-second-place-behind-ipod/
Reply
42 said 8:06PM on 2-07-2007
I'm sorry, I can't listen to anyone who was responsible for the turd-brown Zune.
Reply
Pierre said 8:15PM on 2-07-2007
I agree, this is definitely iPod envy. He makes it sound as if he personally was dying to say these things, and he wants to steal the spotlight.
Those were Steve Jobs words that he is trying to claim are 'obvious.' Can't people like this just agree with someone instead of being like 'Well it was so obvious anyone would've said it'
Reply
Christopher Cachor said 8:19PM on 2-07-2007
Steve Jobs statement yesterday was to shut the European governments up. Opening up FairPlay at this point could destroy the Apple's Media Business. What would you do if you were in his shoes?
If the RIAA really wants Apple to license FairPlay, eliminate the clause that says the labels can pull their catalogs if it's not patched within a few weeks. They're the culprits of this whole thing.
Reply
adam said 9:21PM on 2-07-2007
What's a Zune?
Reply
Edsel said 9:24PM on 2-07-2007
From all appearances, the RIAA is maintaining the often warped, privileged, and drug infested lifestyles of the music industry upon the backs of lower income kids and their parents.
The RIAA lawsuits are a disgusting display of arrogance, extortion, and over-privileged statutory freedom. They have no clue the damage they are doing to their industry.
Reply
G said 10:08PM on 2-07-2007
Funny thing is, Bill Gates doesn't like DRM either (Google "Bill Gates DRM"). Reindorp had better check himself, lest he get Zuned.
Reply
Bruce said 1:19AM on 2-08-2007
No one seems to get the fact that DRM is here, and here to stay. The only way, and i mean ONLY way to ever expect to get content without DRM is to first stop illegally sharing content on P2P and torrent sites. Business will function in a way to reduce cost and waste, while increasing profit, this is how the world works. If an industry can't turn a profit it will go under or change inorder to make a profit. You, as in the consumer, brought DRM upon yourself when you started using Napster. If you keep it up will will end up in a world ruled by Trusted Computing, there is no getting around that fact.
Reply
Jeffbbs said 2:02AM on 2-08-2007
Bruce? Or secretly a comment bot sent here by the RIAA?
"Business will function in a way to reduce cost and waste, while increasing profit, this is how the world works. If an industry can't turn a profit it will go under or change inorder to make a profit."
That's a cute idea, but have you ever seen anything of the "business" related to the "Entertainment" "Industry?"
Secondly, it's nice that you so quickly clear "Business" as some kind of neutral party working for earthly good, while everything is once again fault of the evil people, who are forcing, FORCING the the poor Industry to use DRM. Oh poor poor, Music Industry! How beautiful and pure you are! How dare anyone blame you for anything or have a different view of the way the world ought to be.
There are so many faulty things underlying your comment we could just go on forever.
We already have a world ruled by corporations.
"If an industry can't turn a profit it will go under..." Here's to Hope!
Reply
Pete said 7:59AM on 2-08-2007
"No one seems to get the fact that DRM is here, and here to stay. The only way, and i mean ONLY way to ever expect to get content without DRM is to first stop illegally sharing content on P2P and torrent sites."
I wouldn't expect that to stop or even slow down until there's an easy way to legally download songs DRM-free. There was a time when I used Napster to download songs that I already owned on CD, simply because it was faster and easier than ripping. Likewise with iTunes, even at a small cost per song.
On DRM -- I like the ebook model used by ereader.com. They just give you a password to unlock the book in their reader software... but the password is the credit card number you used to purchase the book with. No chance of people sharing it, and none of the limitations about number of usable devices, etc.
Reply
jumBo BoB said 8:39AM on 2-08-2007
iPod envy! Ha ha ha! It's like they have to make fun of Steve the way he has to make fun of Microsoft! Windows envy! ha ha ha! It's like they're frustrated because they're second to Windows XP, no third, because even Windows 2000 is ahead! Vista is on its way boys!!
Hasta la Vista
:)
Reply
Michael Vogt said 9:00AM on 2-08-2007
DRM can never work the way the industry wants it to. They will only make it difficult for legal consumers, and actually make copyright violation more attractive, while the real pirates selling DVD's on the streets for $2 have hardware that allows them to get around every restriction imaginable within days. When you can't rip a CD to listen to it on your music player, and find it's simply easier to download from P2P networks, you realize how ridiculous DRM is, and how it discourages purchasing music legally.
And for Microsoft to say anything about DRM after what they're doing with Vista--
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
--is quite comical. I do believe that DRM is already being loosened in various European markets, and I simply buy from http://magnatune.com/ or buy real, red-book standard CD's. Or vinyl records, even. I simply won't bother with music that feels the need to restrict me with licensing. I've stopped buying DVD's, too, after I discovered that ripping them to something like MythTV is illegal under the DMCA because you're circumventing the CSS encryption...
Reply
Kizor said 9:30AM on 2-08-2007
"iPod envy! Ha ha ha! It's like they have to make fun of Steve the way he has to make fun of Microsoft! Windows envy! ha ha ha! It's like they're frustrated because they're second to Windows XP, no third, because even Windows 2000 is ahead! Vista is on its way boys!!"
JumBo BoB, you sound like Steve Ballmer. Go away.
Reply
jumBo BoB said 10:02AM on 2-08-2007
Hey, truth hurts. Steve and his fannies can dish it out, but they can't take it.
Reply