[Infowarrior] - Microsoft's Rob Bennett defends DRM decision

[Richard Forno]

At least he points the finger at the moneygrubbing studios and their totally
incompetent policymakers..........rf


Interview: Microsoft's Rob Bennett defends DRM decision
Posted by Greg Sandoval | 10 comments
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9926741-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&t
ag=2547-1_3-0-20

Rob Bennett knew people were going to be angry.

Bennett is the Microsoft executive who notified former customers of the now
defunct MSN Music service on Tuesday that the company would no longer issue
DRM keys for their songs after August 31. This means that, while former
customers can listen to their music on authorized computers for as long as
the hardware lasts, they won't be able to transfer music to a new PC after
that deadline.

"Had we had the ability to deliver DRM-free tracks at the time, we
absolutely would have done that. We talked to the labels at the time about
that."
--Rob Bennett, Microsoft executive

In an interview with CNET News.com, Bennett said that continuing to support
the DRM keys was impractical, that the issue only affects a "small number"
of people and that focusing exclusively on the Zune was the best way to go.
He also noted that it wasn't Microsoft's decision to wrap music into digital
rights management.

The reason for the decision to shut down the DRM-licensing servers was
"every time there is an OS upgrade, the DRM equation gets complex very
quickly," said Bennett, general manager of entertainment, video, and sports
for MSN. "Every time, you saw support issues. People would call in because
they couldn't download licenses. We had to write new code, new
configurations each time...We really believe that, going forward, the best
thing to do is focus exclusively on Zune."

Microsoft shut down MSN Music in November 2006, following a failed effort to
turn the site into a legitimate iTunes challenger. Redmond then turned its
attention and resources on the Zune digital music player and its music
store, Marketplace.

For the past 18 months, Microsoft has continued to enable former customers
of MSN Music to move their song libraries to new computers. The decision to
stop providing new keys has been widely criticized. Critics have long said
that DRM was a means to control legally purchased music at the expense of
consumers. To them, the MSN situation proves it.

Bennett defended Microsoft. He said the company never wanted DRM on its
songs.

"Had we had the ability to deliver DRM-free tracks at the time, we
absolutely would have done that," Bennett said. "We talked to the labels at
the time about that. As a company, we have continued to push for this. Zune
has a subset in their catalog of DRM-free MP3s. Now, the industry is making
progress. The labels are understanding the downside of DRM when its used the
way they wanted to use it, they end up punishing the users who bought music
legally more than those who want to circumvent the system."

Bennett added that Microsoft believes in protecting intellectual property,
but that the company also wants people to be able to enjoy their media
without unreasonable restrictions.

"No one ever foresaw being in this situation," Bennett said. "It's not
something we like to do. We want to make it easy and as painless for our
customers as possible. We really feel, in the long term, what's best for
people who want to buy music from Microsoft is to move to Zune."

Bennett said that former MSN Music customers can back up their music by
burning it to CDs. But what about the loss of sound quality should they
decide to rerip the music?

"We (delivered) music at 160 kbps," Bennett said. "In my personal
(experience), you're not going to lose that much fidelity."