Banging the DRM

After Bill Gates’ explained his view on DRM to a group of bloggers, Steve Jobs has set out his vision for a DRMless world. At first sight it might seem that they’re both saying the same thing – i.e. that as content distributors, they perceive DRM to be an impediment to progress and not in the interests of the consumer. However, this interview with Bill Gates suggests that their positions are more divergent. To be fair, the interview with Bill Gates was over a year ago and it’s possible that in the intervening period Microsoft’s experience with Zune have left him with a slightly different feeling.

Anti DRM groups, such as Defective By Design have taken the views expressed by Jobs and Gates as support for their position. For another view on what’s happening in the music industry with regards to DRM, read this, which is written from a pro-DRM stance.