Michael Arrington of TechCrunch brings us a tale in which he was present at a Microsoft sponsored event to try and win over some bloggers to the dark Zune side, at which he received his third Zune freebie. Lucky SOB, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one myself.

At said event, the bloggers got the opportunity to grill The Gates on various subjects including DRM. Bill's response wasn't expected.

Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which “causes too much pain for legitmate buyers” while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are “huge problems” with DRM, he says, and “we need more flexible models, such as the ability to “buy an artist out for life” (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.

His short term advice: “People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then.”

Emphasis mine, and I, for once, agree with The Gates. DRM stinks and it is crippling the selling feature of the Zune. 

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