Gates: "People should just buy a cd and rip it"

Bill Gates made some interesting comments on Digital Rights Management in front of a group of bloggers today in Seattle. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and a room full of Mac laptop-wielding leading-blogger types got to chat with Gates on the subject of the approaching Mix Conference in Las Vegas, and one of the questions that was asked concerned the long-term viability of DRM. The Microsoft Zune has gotten a lot of criticism over its implementation of rights management, particularly in the way it "expires" previously free tracks that are transferred from one Zune to another as well as the Zune's departure from Microsoft's previous "Plays For Sure" rights management scheme.

Basically he admitted that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM and that there are "huge problems" with it as it currently exists. He also made a few cryptic statements about the future of buying digital music, but to Seattlest the most interesting thing he said invites people to forgo purchasing digital music altogether: “People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then.” Whoa! Bet the Zune team loved to hear that one.