Microsoft Denies Any Zune "Copyright Cop"

This information came via J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, who explained to the NYT why NBC chose Zune Marketplace over the iTunes Store.

According to the NYT, he indicated that the first reason was one we already knew: Apple insists that all TV shows have an identical wholesale price so that it can sell all of them at $1.99, while NBC wants to sell its programs for whatever price it wants.

The second reason given was the interesting one. He said that Apple refused to cooperate with NBC on building filters into its iPod player to remove pirated movies and videos. Perrette said that while the filter is still under development and that its exact form is undecided.

However, on the official Microsoft Zune Blog, a blog post denied Microsoft has any such blog:

We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.

We think some folks in the industry were expressing hopes for how the entire industry, not just Microsoft, would come to look at content distribution, and some speculation has ensued. Again, no plans are in place toward this end.

Interesting that it completely contradicts Perrette. Of course, that doesn't mean Microsoft will never consider such a filter, does it?

Source: By Tech Ex