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A Copyright Cop In Every Zune

Posted by timothy on from the not-just-brown-but-stinky dept.

Mike writes "As if the Zune wasn't already crippled and unpopular enough, now comes a story indicating that Microsoft may build a 'Copyright Cop' into every Zune. A future update of the software for Microsoft's portable media player will likely include a 'feature' that will block unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos from being played on it. The president of digital distribution for NBC, J. B. Perrette, said the plan is to create 'filtering technology that allows for playback of legitimately purchased content versus non-legitimately purchased content.' Of course there's no way to tell legitimate content that you create from 'non-legitimate' content, so this looks like just another nail in the coffin of the Zune." Update: 05/08 20:50 GMT by T : From Microsoft employee Cesar Menendez comes this categorical denial of any such filtering mechanism.

3 of 454 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Huh? Zune? by rthille · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I've got 4 ipods: 1st gen shuffle, 2nd gen shuffle, 3rd Gen Nano, 4th(?) Gen 'original'
    My wife has an iPhone & 2nd gen nano,
    My Daughter has a 3rd gen Nano and lost the hand-me-down Mini we gave her.

    Most of the women I run with that use an MP3 player have a 3rd Gen Nano for the ipod+Nike thing.

    Most of the people I see around with headphone on, the headphones are Apple-white (not sure what they are plugged into though, it's usually in a pocket.

    Here in California, I don't see many non-ipod DAPs.

    --
    Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
  2. Re:Huh? Zune? by DAldredge · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    8 mp players for 3 people and you are begging for donations in your sig?

  3. The mystery of the missing Zune by EEPROMS · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I catch the train and bus to work every day and I have seen maybe two... yes "TWO!!" Zunes in the last year. I have seen more people using Nokia mobile phones to listen to music than Zunes by a factor of 100. Also people keep thinking everyone listens to music when they have an iPOD. Sorry but I as a long time iPOD user listen to podcasts and audio books way more than music. So the stereo typical iPOD user only listening to music and being a pre-pubescent teenager is utter rubbish.