During a keynote speech at the company’s TechNet/MSDN Briefings here Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer joked about recent remarks in which he branded iPod users as thieves.
“Ballmer earlier in the week had ruffled some feathers when he implied that iPod users might be thieves. Speaking in London, Ballmer said, ‘We’ve had DRM (digital rights management) in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is stolen,'” Lars Pasveer reports for CNET News. “He did not repeat that phrasing on Tuesday, instead saying, ‘I don’t know what I said exactly, but it was bad.'”
Pasveer reports, “When asked which MP3 player his son used, he answered jokingly, ‘My son doesn’t have an MP3 player. He has a Windows Media player.’ Everyone in his household knows that the protection of intellectual copyrights is important, he said. ‘It’s what puts food on the table.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: While Ballmer may have several hundred million dollars more than us, those of us who have kids have kids living a richer digital life, happily surrounded by Macs and iPods. It’s interesting that one can have all the money in world and still be stuck with Windows and saddled with a Dell DJ. Whatever it takes to put food on the table, right?
LOL, with a Dell DJ most of us would not have the stomach to eat that food on the table. The urge to vomit would overwhelm us.
how much food? how big a table?
I thought Ballmer made money by doing his monkey dance at the circus!
“The most common format of music on an iPod is stolen”
I’ve read this statement in a number of articles and I still don’t understand what he is saying. What does he mean by common format? Is he referring to the codec? If so, that doesn’t make any sense as you don’t steal an mp3 format or an AAC format (well, unless you’r Real). Is he trying to say that most songs on an iPod have been stolen? What?
i let a kid at school look at my ipod while i studyed his dell dj. i felt so bad for him.
Am I alone in noticing the irony of MS/Ballmer even daring to use the word “theft” in regards to Apple products? Pretty ballsy.
Glass houses, pal.
How ironic!!
M$ saying that APPLE stole something – LOL!!
Everyone knows that M$ has stolen EVERYTHING they sell from the computer companies.
Amazing what crap a M$ employee will spout just to save M$ skin!
He does’nt even realise what the press think of someone coming out with this crap in front of them – I bet they all laughed their heads off when they got out the building!!
Ballmer did no good to M$ crap reputation spouting that shit!
Apple should sue Balmer for libel!
I hear Microsoft are working on ways to put rights management on food – so cusomers can’t reproduce it… oh hang on, the American GM industry has already done that.
I think there’s going to be a major teenage rebellion in the Ballmer household as puberty continues to set in. I can’t wait for Ballmer Jr. to start his homework one evening by setting an iBook onto the kitchen table. “SON, WHAT IS THAT? THAT? THAT? THAT?” (Ballmer seems to repeat himself sometimes “Developers, developers…”)
“Dad, I bought it with this week’s allowance. It runs the best version of Office, it doesn’t crash, it doesn’t have stupid viruses, and it doesn’t have your stupid DRM.”
“I can’t believe you brought that…that THING into this house, young Ballmer.”
“Shut up dad. I’ve been reading Slashdot. I know what you and your corporate masters are up to, and I don’t want any part of it. I’m going to be my own man, go my own way. As soon as I can, I’m moving out of this dump.”
“Why YOU LITTLE…!”
Ballmer said: “My son doesn’t have an MP3 player. He has a Windows Media player.’ Everyone in his household knows that the protection of intellectual copyrights is important,…”. And he uses a Mico$oft product for protection? Ha, ha funny shit!
News Flash!
MS loudmouth Steve Ballmer studing “Back To The Future” movies for ideas on how to invent a “Wayback” machine so he can go back in time and change the thousands of stupid things he’s said over the years.
As is his way, he failed to follow through with a quality project, and he ended up making things worse.
Steve Ballmer has an intellectual copyrights maid?
That puts food on their table!?! I would assume it would look similar to Rosie on the Jetsons
-paul
Cut it out Steve (not that Steve, not the other one either), I just blew coffee out of my nose and onto my keyboard. Gross.
Monkey Boy should stick to dancing.
ballmer, you suck
go bosox!
why are apes running everything these days? i think there was a movie about that.
I didn’t realize Steve Ballmer was working for Apple now� Number One way to sell a product to teenagers: Tell them it’s illegal. I just hope drug dealers don’t get a franchise from Ballmer to sell iPods.
Kudos Steve.
I wonder if Ballmer’s son came in with an iPod and an iBook if he’d be disowned by his dad the Microshaft Monkey?
Ballmer: ‘I don’t know what I said exactly, but it was bad.'”
Ballmer said his statement was BAD, not wrong or incorrect.
The only place food gets put on the table by M$ intellectual rights management is the Ballmer household.
Using their shit certainly wouldn’t put food on my table, just more on Ballmer’s.
…and let’s face it, Monkey Boy needs to go on a diet anyway.
Ballmer has a son? That means someone actually had sex with him! Amazing. She must have been deaf, dumb, blind, and unable to feel or smell. Actually most Windows users can claim at least three of those deficiencies.
The good news from Apple’s standpoint is that the lifetime of portable digital appliances is generally only a few years. So all of those Dell DJ users will have a guilt-free opportunity to switch to an iPod.
Come to think of it, the useful lifetime of an average PC is only a few year, too. So they can buy a Mac at the same time
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
“saddled with a Dell DJ”
Even Thurrot has dumped his DJ. Last time I had the misfortune to visit his InternetNexus site the DJ has mysteriously vanished from his “what I’m listening to” sidebar.
Ballmer Jr. must be the only non-Dell employee to have one.
Poor little son-of-a-monkey…
[My son doesn’t have an MP3 player. He has a Windows Media player.’]
Now Ballmer’s son can be as cool as Steve is. Lugging the WMP around school, just waiting for some geek to beat him up.
[Everyone in his household…]
What, he doesn’t live with you, Steve?
[It’s what puts food on the table.]
It’s not on the table for very long at Steve’s house. Grrrrrraaaaahh! Memy morr bork choffs, Mawge?! Hoooougghh! Gasp!
Cheap shot, cheap shot, cheap shot! Watch me dance!