Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

DRM 'Too Complicated' Says Gates

Posted by Zonk on from the comments-good-for-three-days-or-three-plays dept.

arbirk writes "BBC News is reporting on comments made by Bill Gates concerning DRM.. It seems he has got the point (DRM is bad for consumers), but that opinion differs widely from the approach taken by Microsoft on Zune and their other music related products. The comments were originally posted on Micro Persuasion. The article also has a take on Apple's DRM." From the BBC article: "Microsoft is one of the biggest exponents of DRM, which is used to protect music and video files on lots of different online services, including Napster and the Zune store. Blogger Michael Arrington, of Techcrunch.com, said Bill Gates' short-term advice for people wanting to transfer songs from one system to another was to 'buy a CD and rip it'. Most CDs do not have any copy protection and can be copied to a PC and to an MP3 player easily and, in the United States at least, legally."

6 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Exponents? by bilbravo · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    That was my first thought... methinks the word desired was "proponents". :-)

    --
    Starmen.net
  2. Re:Exponents? by Dunbal · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I do not think that word means what you think it means.

    exponent (k-sp'nnt, k'sp'nnt) Pronunciation Key
    n. 1. One that expounds or interprets.
          2. One that speaks for, represents, or advocates: Our senator is an exponent of free trade.
          3. Abbr. exp Mathematics A number or symbol, as 3 in (x + y)3, placed to the right of and above another number, symbol, or expression, denoting the power to which that number, symbol, or expression is to be raised. Also called power.

          Your new word for the day. It is used correctly.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  3. Re:Exponents? by zolaris · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    Actually I think it does mean what he thinks it means. I didn't know this, I'll admit I had to look it up but:

    exponent (k-sp'nnt, k'sp'nnt)
    n.
    1. One that expounds or interprets.
    2. One that speaks for, represents, or advocates: Our senator is an exponent of free trade.
    3. Abbr. exp Mathematics A number or symbol, as 3 in (x + y)3, placed to the right of and above another number, symbol, or expression, denoting the power to which that number, symbol, or expression is to be raised. Also called power. --The American Heritage Dictionary

    So Microsoft advocates DRM.
  4. "Exponent" in the sense of "advocate." by leahzero · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=exponent

    2. a person or thing that is a representative, advocate, type, or symbol of something
  5. Re:Exponents? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    >Your new word for the day. It is used correctly.

    Maybe it's more common on that side of the pond? The OP's thought was my first thought too. In speech or writing in the U.S. I always see "proponent".

    Now somebody's going to post a bunch of statistics on how it's used all the time here ...

  6. Re:Exponents? by John+Nowak · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I live in the US and it made sense to me. :-)