Amid lots of speculation, EFF is reporting that Microsoft’s Zune player will not support the PlayForSure files based on their own DRM. Now this has been opined on by many people, and I do not take this as a final answer, but there seems to be too much speculation about this without any Microsoft denial to not give it any credence. But it would be an amazing thing if they don’t support it. The closest thing I have seen to an answer is where the EFF article says, ‘Microsoft clearly states that “Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264″ — protected WMA and WMV (not to mention iTunes DRMed AAC) are conspicuously absent.’
Without that support, what are they left with? Napster and the other music stores that have been selling music have been using Microsoft’s PlayForSure assuming that would be supported by Microsoft itself. If this rumor is true, nobody is going to be more disappointed than those music stores themselves. I am definitely going to wait to see what comes of this because this could be a big deal. Could it portend the end of DRM? We can only hope.
