Bill Gates has some clear advice for consumers: don't buy music from digital music stores, including the Urge store that it backs. Digital rights management technology after all is far too complicated to actually use. His advice" buy a CD and rip it to your hard drive and portable mp3 player.

The words are remarkable coming from Gates. The Microsoft chairman is partly responsible for the DRM mess, as his company created the Windows Media Format. HE seemed to be targeting Apple's iTunes store more than anything else, however.

18 Dec 2006

"At the end of the day, incentive systems [for artists] make a difference, but we don't have the right thing here in terms of simplicity or interoperability," Gates said at a conference last Friday.

You see, in Gates' head, digital rights management by itself isn't evil, as long as you allow all device makers to support the technology. Apple famously won't allow other device makers to build media players that support its Fairplay DRM, where Microsoft will sell a license for its Windows Media to anyone with a wallet.

If Gates is sincere about wanting to create an honest DRM while preventing piracy, he should consider backing Sun's open DRM project, or at least opening up Windows Media.

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