Tim Almond

Some time ago, Microsoft came up with a program called PlaysForSure, the idea being that people could buy a device and know that they could buy protected content from certain other places, and that that content would work.

So, what’s strange is that Microsoft’s new player, the Zune, apparantly isn’t going to support PlaysForSure. So, Microsoft’s own program for music isn’t right for their own player? I have some sympathy for the people who run electronics stores who will have to explain to Zune owners why the music they bought with a Microsoft logo and "PlaysForSure" isn’t going to work on their existing player.

Any closed data format poses this risk to users, that your data is not really your own, which is why I generally advise against them. There is a completely open audio format called Ogg Vorbis. If that isn’t practical (Vorbis is not supported on a whole lot of players), opt for something like MP3, for which the format is known and for which there are low priced converters that provide you with an exit strategy. The downside of MP3 is that it is patent protected, so writing a decoder would infringe those (the patent expires in April 2010, at which point MP3 becomes public domain and you’ll see a whole raft of new freeware MP3 tools).

—–

Tags: Technology //