'iPod users are music thieves' says Ballmer - silicon.com

'iPod users are music thieves' says Ballmer - silicon.com: "Billing Microsoft as the good guys and Apple the villains of the piece - at least as far as corporate America, rather than users, is concerned, Ballmer said: 'We%u2019ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'.' "

On the one hand, this is pretty obvious MS vs Apple stuff. On the other, its another case of somebody (deliberately?) missing the point. iPods are popular because they work for people (looking cool is an advantage, but wouldn't driver sales on its own). Even assuming that Balmer is correct that "most" music on iPods is stolen, that would still be true if people were recording their MP3s onto cassette and playing them in a Walkman.

And the stuff about DRM is just bluff - DRM has to limit users in some way, and as a result will never be popular with the public.