[Messiahtosh]

Ballmer calls iPod users 'thieves'
October 4 - 05:52 EDT** Speaking to members of the press in London recently, Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said that "iPod users are music thieves," reports 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’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen'.'" *from www.macminute.com

I am personally angry about a comment like that, considering I have bought around $230 worth of music from the iTunes music store. My bought content is probably over half of what is on the iPod, pretty good by today's standards. I would bet that my collection of stolen tunes is fairly low, compared to the average user. Plus, I have rarely stolen music since the advent of the iTunes Music Store.

Ballmer is jealous and just freaking gross, probably sweating as we speak. Eww...

The funny thing is, Ballmer's attack is also directed at his own customers! How many Windows users also have iPods? Maybe as many or more than have Macs! What a freaking idiot.

[psmith2.0]

Nice.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

I didn't realize I needed stolen music to use my iPod. Can I get a refund?

[psmith2.0]

Before the day is out, this is going to be a huge, funny story and Ballmer is just going to get hammered left and right, on message boards AND by professional columnists and writers. He's so utterly wrong and off-the-mark that there's no getting around it.

And yeah, he kinda winds up dinging tons of Windows users too, in the process.

This should be funny...I mean, thanks to those videos of him hopping around, screaming and sweating, people are going to be more ruthless in their comebacks than they would if he were just some run-of-the-mill chucklehead like Dvorak. He's a HUGE target, just asking for it now...



For the record, MY iPod is my entire CD collection and about 60 iTMS purchases, so bug off Steve...not any stolen stuff on there.

[Xaqtly]

I can't even think of anything suitably clever to say. Ballmer really did it this time. I eagerly await a massive backlash on this one.

[Wrao]

Yea, well he's a poopy head.

[Messiahtosh]

Originally Posted by Wrao Yea, well he's a poopy head.

A sweaty, poopy head.

[709]

with bad breath.

[torifile]

What it sounds like he's saying is that the most common format of music on the iPod - what most people have on their iPods - is mp3. This is also the format of choice for stealers. Based on this comment, it sounds like whatever MS has up their sleeves for a music-player will not be mp3 compatible. I think he's just trying to spin it early. That's my take, anyway...

[psmith2.0]

It'll suck and/or flop, whatever it is. He can "spin it" all he wants.

[scratt]

You might as well say that every person with a DVD-W, or a CD-W or a Video recorder, or a Cassette recorder are thieves!!

Good grief... what a no-brainer!!

[ast3r3x]

Originally Posted by scratt You might as well say that every person with a DVD-W, or a CD-W or a Video recorder, or a Cassette recorder are thieves!! Good grief... what a no-brainer!!

Never have I seen someone says DVD-W or CD-W.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by ast3r3x Never have I seen someone says DVD-W or CD-W.

I'm confused!?!? What do you mean?

[ast3r3x]

Originally Posted by scratt I'm confused!?!? What do you mean?

I've never seen someone use DVD-W or CD-W referring to a DVD or CD burner.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by ast3r3x I've never seen someone use DVD-W or CD-W referring to a DVD or CD burner.

Oh I understand now! Dunno what the right terminology is... sorry if I have comitted a crime!!

My head is still spinning because you can't get 5.25 inch floppy disks any more!!
I have no use for my 'notcher' anymore and I still can't find my 3.5 disk drive on my 17" G4 and I am sire it must have one somewhere!!

[ast3r3x]

I wasn't trying to be an ass, I was just saying, I've never heard of that being used, I didn't know if it was used or it was just a thing a certain group of people do, or if you were just trying to be different

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by Messiahtosh "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’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen'.'" *from www.macminute.com

We've had a GUI for years. The user experience of Windows is "stolen".

Pot, meet kettle.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Originally Posted by scratt Oh I understand now! Dunno what the right terminology is... sorry if I have comitted a crime!! My head is still spinning because you can't get 5.25 inch floppy disks any more!! I have no use for my 'notcher' anymore and I still can't find my 3.5 disk drive on my 17" G4 and I am sire it must have one somewhere!!

Wow, you bought one of those notcher doohickies? I just used my paper punch. Of course, it took a couple of tries before I learned just how far in to punch!

[Messiahtosh]

Originally Posted by curiousuburb We've had a GUI for years. The user experience of Windows is "stolen". Pot, meet kettle.

Ironic, isn't it?

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by Messiahtosh Ironic, isn't it?

This would be irony at its finest. I wonder if Ballmer gets off to calling his own customers thieves.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by DMBand0026 This would be irony at its finest. I wonder if Ballmer gets off to calling his own customers thieves.

Perhaps he's angling for a job with the RIAA?

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by curiousuburb Perhaps he's angling for a job with the RIAA?

He's already a whore, he doesn't need the RIAA distinction.

[Koodari]

Microsoft is seriously underestimating its customers' ability to distinguish bullshit from truth. If I wouldn't have already quit using Microsoft software, I would now. These people have zero respect even for their own user base.

MP3 is the most popular format. True.
Most MP3's out there infringe on copyrights. True.

However, let's consider that iTMS is the most popular music store, and iTMS customers and iPod owners correlate strongly. Let's also consider that iPod is a relatively expensive player, and therefore its owners will have more than average funds available for buying music.

Based on these factors, I think it's a given an average iPod contains less copyright infringing MP3's than the average PC (incl. Macs) that is used for music listening.

Not to mention Apple's DRM has done more for the music industry than Microsoft's, since it's the only one people are reasonably willing to buy at this point...

[curiousuburb]

I don't know if I'd agree that most MP3s are copyright infringing. Some are.
Some folks rip CD collections they legally own.
And Canadians aren't breaking the law downloading anyway.

[murbot]

Yeah, we're not stealing... we're sharing.

[Koodari]

Originally Posted by curiousuburb I don't know if I'd agree that most MP3s are copyright infringing. Some are. Some folks rip CD collections they legally own. And Canadians aren't breaking the law downloading anyway.

Technically I'm not breaking the laws of my country either. Let's just talk about "paid for" and "unpaid for" MP3's. Free MP3's belong in the "paid for" category.

I don't need statistics to know that the vast majority of MP3's has not been paid for, either in the form of the MP3 itself or in the form of a CD. About every person I know has multiple gigs of unpaid for MP3's. Consider even one person with 40GB of MP3's (I once had this much). To offset that and achieve 50-50 status, you'd need to have some other people rip about 400 CD's or otherwise acquire MP3's while having no unpaid for MP3's of their own. In the larger scale I find this totally impossible.

[Barto]

The fact remains if Steve Ballmer had said "most digital music is stolen," it may or may not have been factually correct (ignoring the inherent untruth in equating copyright infringement with theft). Either way, it would not stir up much controversy.

But noooooooooo... Steve had to say that most digital music on iPods is stolen. That may or may not be true, but to imply that Microsoft is some kind of great crusader smashing Apple's iPod piracy ring with their Great Sword of DRM Justice is ABSURD!

It also conveniently ignores the fact that Microsoft "stole" (going by SteveB's terminology) code from QuickTime and 3D Studio Max. Amongst other things. And that in general Microsoft take far more from others than they give back.

It's not the copyright infringement/theft aspect that is raising the blood pressure of Mac users but the baseless attack and hypocrisy.

[scratt]

Well based on a recent report studying the effect of P2P on the music industry the ratio of stolen MP3s to lost sales to the music giants is far less than the ratio of increased revenue because of people sampling these 'stolen' MP3s and actually going and buying the full album.

The study actually showed that P2P 'sharing' is good for the music industry and that their bleating about lost revenue is a Red Herring as their market share has dropped almost 10 times as much as P2P sharing could possibly effect.

So if all the music on iPods is stolen then we must just be doing our part to help the music industry, just as Apple themselves have done by launching iTMS!!

p.s. ast3r3x - np, man! I thought it was funny! And I thought perhaps I should have called 5.25 inch floppies 16cm ones to keep it all in context!!

[onlyafterdark]

Well based on a recent report studying the effect of P2P on the music industry the ratio of stolen MP3s to lost sales to the music giants is far less than the ratio of increased revenue because of people sampling these 'stolen' MP3s and actually going and buying the full album.

I knew they were full of shit. I read a report that said the same thing and Im a perfect example of what the reports say. I very frequently dl or sample tracks off new cds on P2P/ITMS and then make my choice on whether or not to buy the album. And the funny thing is, less than 15% of my "MP3" collection is actually MP3s that I have gotten off of P2P programs. Everything else is from cds. So Microsoft can cram their FUD back where the sun dont shine.

[Ryan]

We all know these guys are pretty pissed about now.