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  Bassam - September 15th, 2006 at 5:14 pm GMT+5

  Simple: All the songs purchased from the Zune store will have no DRM. You can play them on whatever you want, move them around, share them with friends…

  Makes perfect sense. The EFF has nothing to worry about.

  Coming soon: Windows going open source, XBox 360 playing PS3 games, and Bill Gates/Linus Torvalds genetically-combined unholy clone.

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  Bob_from_Bushey - September 15th, 2006 at 5:27 pm GMT+5

  Ahh keep dreaming Bassam :)

  Separating Zune and PlaysForSure makes perfect sense coming from Microsoft. They want money, and the best way is to sell the hardware *and* and media.

  If the Zune player were PlaysForSure compatible, Microsoft would have to compete not only with other PlaysForSure hardware makers for sales, but also with other digital music stores selling PlaysForSure music.

  By creating a new “Zune-DRM”, they can fob off their PlaysForSure partners and at the same time drop a heap of money on their Zune brand to grab a decent piece of the market for themselves, just like the Xbox.

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  Alex Porter - September 15th, 2006 at 10:03 pm GMT+5

  I think it actually looks nice. The screen designs seem to have a lot more interest and character, while the iPod is a very simple design. I look forward to seeing the final Zune product (though I’d have to break the DRM and convert all my iPod songs in order to use one).

  Boy, I hope this comment wins me an iPod ;)

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  sonicbox - September 15th, 2006 at 10:26 pm GMT+5

  I know all the PlaysForSure stores aren’t as popular as iTunes Music Store… but I’m going to be pretty pissed off I can’t load on my existing paid-for PlaysForSure DRM content on the Zune player. They can’t be telling me I need to rebuy my MSN Music or URGE music again, can they?!?!

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  10layers - September 16th, 2006 at 4:56 am GMT+5

  This pretty much means PlaysForSure is dead. The likely outcome of this seems rather obvious. Microsoft appears to have a good, but not great, offering in Zune. They are probably unlikely to make any significant dent in Apple’s market share as things stand today. Instead, it is likely that Zune’s market share will be at the expense of the iPod competitors/the iPod killers/the PlaysForSure license holders. While Zune may not be an iPod killer, it is likely to become an iPod-killer killer. Microsoft has just shafted not only its music store and music player manufacturer partners, but also customers who have invested in PlaysForSure players and music. We are covering this in Zune: the iPod-killer killer

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  Derek Slater - September 17th, 2006 at 1:26 am GMT+5

  Richard, believe it — Zune is not PlaysForSure compatible. Engadget actually reported this months ago:
  http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/21/zune-what-we-know-think-we-know-and-dont-yet-know/

  I didn’t believe that, but the press release and press reports this week (including the PaidContent.org and Engadget articles cited in my post) confirm ithat this is indeed the case.

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  LKM - September 18th, 2006 at 1:27 am GMT+5

  I guess they’ll rename “PlaysForSure” to “PlaysForShizzle” or something. Not only do they screw the consumers, they also screw every partner who made PlaysForSure gadgets.

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