Charles,
You seem to be fighting a fight that doesn't exist.
I don't think anyone replied because your email is the electronic equivalent
of an IED.
Using our company name in your email illuminates your real message here
which is, IMH, inappropriate for this list.
Zune is an effort being run by a group separate from WMD and J Allard has
some ideas which he is bringing to the marketplace. Will they be wildly
successful? Hard to say.
Meanwhile device manufacturers will continue to ship WMRM enabled players
and the number of WMRM enabled players will continue to grow. Come
Christmas-time I would expect to see no less than 100 different WMRM enabled
players for sale under the PlaysForSure moniker or as stand-alone product.
Meanwhile the DRM industry at large continues to grow by leaps and bounds
and I can only tell you our business is extremely healthy and for those of
you at Streaming Media West in , we look forward to seeing you at our
booth and discussing the future of the PayMedia Industry.
Charles if you are in town I would love to buy you a drink.
Regards,
Christopher
Message
From: WMTalk [mailto:WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM] Behalf
Charles
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 10:20 AM
To: WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM
Subject: Re: Zune not a PlaysForSure device, so
Nobody seemed willing to touch this :-)
Yeah, funny, eh? I'm assuming it's because the points I made were all valid.
But I will say thank you for the 3X BuyDRM ad
Anytime! With Microsoft ditching partners in favor of a vertical solution,
it's former partners are going to need all the help they can get.
- Charles
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Christopher Levy wrote:

Charles,

You seem to be fighting a fight that doesn't exist.

I think he was highlighting/characterizing it more as a conflict between
their partners. It's hard to say that is not an issue, especially since
there are already so many negative market forces waying in
-Zune not compat with Playsforsure (customer perspective as well as
hardware vendors)
-DRM broken, apparently no solution provided yet, owners and distrib's
in limbo for 2+ weeks
-h264 gaining market share (chipsets & software vendor-choice, developer
mindshare, AVCHD, handhelds, broadcasters/DVB, studios (electing to use
blu-ray + AVC), quicktime/ipod)
-dropped mac support
-others i cant think of

Ken

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PS - IM Charles's original post has some very valid -- and poignant --
questions (whether perceived as pessimistic or just pragmatic).
Questions which few of us may know the answers to, and certainly most
are wondering -- they affect the viability of the whole format (or at
least Zune).

So this board seems as good a place as any to ask them and hopefully get
an official answer

Ken

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Hmm the only partner he mentioned, BuyDRM, has nothing to do with Zune or
any of the issues Charles brought up.

Actually, you're right - to Ken's point, this has nothing to do with you.
You can stop offering your opinions now. J

Broken? No. Not at all.

Wow. Not sure if you've heard, but BSkyB shut down their service until this
is resolved. Normally when something doesn't do the one thing it's primarily
meant to do.

Charles no need to make it seem adversarial. Another division in the company
tasked with the daunting chore of conquering the living room and home and
social networking marketspaces.

Don't forget the portable audio/video player market and the mobile phone
market.

- Charles

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(Sorry, got excited and sent prematurely.)

Hmm the only partner he mentioned, BuyDRM, has nothing to do with Zune or
any of the issues Charles brought up.

Actually, you're right - to Ken's point, this has nothing to do with you.
You can stop offering your opinions now. J

Broken? No. Not at all.

Wow. Not sure if you've heard, but BSkyB shut down their service until this
is resolved. Normally when something doesn't do the one thing it's primarily
meant to do.

Charles no need to make it seem adversarial. Another division in the company
tasked with the daunting chore of conquering the living room and home and
social networking marketspaces.

Don't forget the portable audio/video player market and the mobile phone
market.

HWEVER this does not preclude the fact that Zune is just one device

This year, but more devices are coming in 2007, and you won't be able to
play their reindeer games either.

I'm surprised you're so cool with this.

- Charles

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9/20/06, Christopher Levy <clevy (AT) nfagroup (DOT) comwrote:

* another note, as a Microsoft MVP it's my job to evangelize Windows
Media and more importantly DRM but not always at my own benefit.*

Christopher:

You are mistaken in the above statement. MVPs are credible because they are
NT Microsoft evangelists. That doesn't mean we don't recommend or use
Microsoft products. The MVP award is given for past contributions to the MS
communities and nothing is expected in return from us. Giving the
impression that we are required to evangelize MS products and services is a
disservice to MS and to the MVP program.

See:

(particularly Q8)

Phil
MVP for DirectX/DirectShow 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 (and hopefully 2006 in a
couple of weeks).

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Nice catch!

Note that this doesn't mean I'm leaving the streaming world behind in
any way. I'm on our codec engagement team, so I share my love for
WMV9/VC-1 all the places it's found, both HD DVD and in WMV files.

-Ben

From: WMTalk [mailto:WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM] Behalf
Derek R. Flickinger - iHi
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 7:39 PM
To: WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM
Subject: Ben Waggoner's new gig

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Crikey!

So it does, for me as well.

Furiously IM'ing support

-Ben

From: WMTalk [mailto:WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM] Behalf
Christopher Levy
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 7:58 PM
To: WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM
Subject: Re: Ben Waggoner's new gig

Hey Ben I think your submit button or function is broken. Using IE7 I
get a 404.

Message
From: WMTalk [mailto:WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM] Behalf
Derek R. Flickinger - iHi
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 7:39 PM
To: WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM
Subject: Ben Waggoner's new gig

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Sorry for beating you to the punch on letting this group know about it <g>.
We all wish you well and know that the HD DVD side will take off well if you
are one of the ones making it happen.

=D-

From: WMTalk [mailto:WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM] Behalf Ben
Waggoner
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 00:36
To: WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM
Subject: Re: Ben Waggoner's new gig

Nice catch!

Note that this doesn't mean I'm leaving the streaming world behind in any
way. I'm on our codec engagement team, so I share my love for WMV9/VC-1 all
the places it's found, both HD DVD and in WMV files.

-Ben

From: WMTalk [mailto:WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM] Behalf Derek
R. Flickinger - iHi
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 7:39 PM
To: WMTalk (AT) DISCUSSMS (DOT) HSTING.LSFT.CM
Subject: Ben Waggoner's new gig

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