Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Zune Pays to Share?
Posted by Darius Wey in "Zune Talk" @ 09:35 PM
"Damn it. Quit yanking my chain. Now it turns out that Microsoft just may reward you for sharing tunes with the Zune media player after all, if a recently leaked whitepaper is to be believed. The document outlines "off-line economies for digital media", describing how you can "sell" content to another Zune owner while still sending the profits to the copyright holder. In exchange, maybe you get some brownie points or something. The paper goes on to talk about immediate purchases on-the-go, Bluetooth sharing, anti-piracy practices, and so forth."
Courtesy of Artghost.com
Well, that's the buzz going around, but I'm not convinced. The whitepaper (PDF) talks about an isolated, tamper-resistant economic ecosystem composed of media players, eager sellers and buyers, and a whole lot of care factor. It has merit, but seems difficult to execute with current-generation Zune devices. Maybe it'll have a place in a few years time, when Microsoft has its digital partners sorted, enhanced hardware, and a more widespread market base. After all, it's a Microsoft Research paper centred highly on theoretical material. Such material often takes a few years to come into effect, if at all. Although, now that I think about it, if it really did come into effect, would I really want every Zune user on the street bugging me to buy their tunes? Probably not. I'll go to a store for that.
Courtesy of Artghost.com
Well, that's the buzz going around, but I'm not convinced. The whitepaper (PDF) talks about an isolated, tamper-resistant economic ecosystem composed of media players, eager sellers and buyers, and a whole lot of care factor. It has merit, but seems difficult to execute with current-generation Zune devices. Maybe it'll have a place in a few years time, when Microsoft has its digital partners sorted, enhanced hardware, and a more widespread market base. After all, it's a Microsoft Research paper centred highly on theoretical material. Such material often takes a few years to come into effect, if at all. Although, now that I think about it, if it really did come into effect, would I really want every Zune user on the street bugging me to buy their tunes? Probably not. I'll go to a store for that.
