Stephen Wildstrom emailed me his comments regarding my post on electronic music distribution formats and proprietary digital rights management tools (ie, limiting our fair use rights):

Actually, WMA/Janus is no more or less proprietary than AAC/FairPlay, except that Microsoft owns both the format and the DRM, while with AAC, Dolby owns the format and Apple owns the DRM. WMA and AAC are both freely licensable, the former from Microsoft, the latter through the MPEG-4 patent pool.
I don’t want to rescue anyone from FairPlay. It’s a perfectly fine DRM as DRMs go. I just think Apple has to open it, in the sense of licensing to all comers, if they really want to compete.
In writing the piece, I had no intention of getting into the virtues of DRM. Mostly that was because I just didn’t have space, but partly it’s because if we want digital content that is, like the overwhelming bulk of stuff that people seem to want, controlled by movie studios and record companies, we’re going to have to put up with DRM. With all respect to Prof. Lessig, his view of fair use seems to be based more on wishful thinking than law. And while there is some attraction to Creative Commons as a concept, I haven’t seen a rush of artists–at least not those who expect to get paid–to it.
INDUCE, by the way, did not pass and is dead for this year. I think it will be a lot tougher next year because the tech industry, which bizarrely let Microsoft take a leadership position on the bill, has woken up. Microsoft claimed that it had the backing of all the companies in the business software alliance, but they seem to have avoided asking Intel, which is staunchly opposed. Even within Microsoft, the company’s backing for INDUCE, which seems to be driven by the legal department, is very controversial. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft joins a flock of tech companies that are filing amicus briefs opposing the MPAA’s petition for a write of certiorari in the Grokster case.

Stephen Wildstrom argues, incorrectly – that Microsoft will ride to the rescue and “save us” from incompatible music formats (Apple uses a format called Fairplay, Microsoft uses a proprietary format called Janus, while RealPlayer’s is Helix and Sony’s is known as ATRAC). All of these formats include DRM (digital restrictions management): software techniques to limit our fair use rights.The very last thing we need is for Microsoft to own the electronic music distribution format. Who can forget their famous statement vis a vis Netscape “Cut off their air supply“. A Microsoft controlled music format means no more MP3’s which are playable on a very wide variety of devices.
Wildstrom should listen to and understand Larry Lessig’s recent Bloggercon session. Microsoft worked with Orrin Hatch (a formerly hostile senator) to push the absurd Induce Act through congress, further eroding our rights (but for, as Lessig says, the right to hire a lawyer). Anyone with a clear understanding of Microsoft’s history with proprietary formats and API’s would not support their controlling electronic music distribution. Make no mistake, there’s a real battle going on and presently Apple is winning (the iPod still plays MP3’s….)