“How swiftly thought evolves in the wonderful world of Ballmer! First, iPods are full of ‘stolen’ music, next he forgets what he said, but suggests that it might be anything that isn’t a Windows Media Player that’s full of stolen music, and now iPod owners turn out to be the most law-abiding people in the world,” John Lettice writes for The Register.
“We’re sure iPod owners will regard being called law-abiding by an exec from a company with Microsoft’s legal experience as a high point to end the week on. But, you ask, how the blazes did we get to this one? We have Ged Carrol’s blog to thank. Mightily offended by Ballmer’s original comments, Ged used the feedback system at microsoft.com to demand an apology, and he got one,” Lettice writes.
“The grovel itself is particularly interesting because of the way you can feel the truth shifting under your feet as you read it. ‘We would like to assure you that when Steve Ballmer implied that most of the music on iPods were stolen, he absolutely did not intend to single out iPod owners for criticism. [this implying would be when he whooped ‘STOLEN! STOLEN! STOLEN!’] In fact, given that they have access to their very own – and very popular – online music store, they are likely among the most law-abiding consumers of digital music,'” Lettice writes. “Notice the sneaky bit of dissing there? If you weren’t paying attention you might run away with the view that the Apple music store only worked with iPods, and entirely miss the fact that Apple has extremely capable player software in both Mac and Windows formats. But back to the apology…”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course, we would quite readily take this opportunity to apologize to Ballmer for calling him a big, fat, bald, sweaty, doughnut-eating, psychotic dancing fool if we were wrong on those counts.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Ballmer says ‘iPod users are thieves’ statement ‘was bad’ – October 05, 2004
Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘Apple iPod users are music thieves’ – October 04, 2004
Microsoft CEO Ballmer on the digital home: ‘There is no way that you can get there with Apple’ – October 03, 2004
amyhre.. bill gates is so cool, he’s super neat!
*push glasses in
kermit the frog voice aside
He better apologize.After all,they are using an apple product(one G5) in the X-box 2.
I got the same response yesterday from Microsoft in response to a letter I wrote to them. The text of the entire message…..
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Microsoft.com Customer Support and for getting in touch with us about Steve Ballmer’s comments on iPod.
When Steve Ballmer implied that most of the music on iPods were stolen, he absolutely did not intend to single out iPod owners for criticism. In fact, given that they have access to their very own – and very popular – online music store, they are likely among the most law-abiding consumers of digital music. But the reality is that piracy remains high in terms of illegal downloads of music, and while online music services are getting better and better and winning more customers, piracy is still a major problem both on the PC and on devices.
Microsoft Windows Media digital rights management (DRM) is a great way to limit piracy, and the main point Steve was trying to convey was that it requires a coordinated effort among many industry partners to do it right. More information on this platform is found on this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/drm/faq.aspx
If you have other suggestions or comments, please feel free to send us another e-mail.
Sincerely,
Cherlene
Microsoft.com Customer Support
Stephen – that letter juts show how full of bullshit M$ is!
They can even apologise!!
Admit Ballmer! – WHAT YOU SAID WAS TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE and a Senor Manager in any other company would have got the sack for spouting such crap in front of the IT press.
The only reason you said it was to undermine the award winning and market leading Ipod and Apple’s innovation in CREATING legal downloadable music.
Shame Apple beat you to it!
Then again – that has been the case with everything APPLE does – THEY ALWAYS CREATE THINGS FIRST AND M$ ALWAYS COPIES IT!
“When Steve Ballmer implied”
He did not “imply” it, he stated it. It wasn’t as though it was one possible interpretation of his words that’s being countered, he actually said that most of the music on iPods is stolen!
“that most of the music on iPods were stolen, he absolutely did not intend to single out iPod owners for criticism.”
How do you say that most of the music on a specific set of devices is stolen *without* intending to single out the owners of those devices for criticism? How? Is it that most iPods are being loaded with music by other than their owners?!! iPodgeists in the night?
Is it safe to go out to the backyard and dig up my iPod now ?
Just to set the record straight, the G5 computer chip is not “an Apple product”. It is an IBM product…. and the version to be used in the XBox is different. Nevertheless, Balmer has what many corporate higher ups have these days, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE!
here’s my email to Microsoft
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just who the fsck does steve balmer think he is saying that the music on my ipod is stolen huh?
bet his kids are cryin’ out for an ipod but can’t get one ‘cuz daddy works for M$. i think he needs to put some humble pie on the table instead of bread to find out what crow tastes like.
don’t suspose there’s any chance of a grovelling apology like other people are getting for monkey-boy’s comments?
Rob Ottest
why didnt you use your real name..?
that is my real name
Steve foot-in-the-mouth Ballmer stricks again!!!!
“I’ve got for words for ya. I’m…. having….. a….. stroke…..”
iPod owners ‘likely among the most law-abiding consumers of digital music’
Gimme a break!
I know many people from work (they have money) who don’t buy their music on their 60GB ipod full of MP3, but I also know many people who do buy music and not own an ipod.
The word to emphasise is ‘LIKELY’, just for the fact Apple has a music store.
All I have to say is, “Developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers!” That guy cracks me up.
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