This is not necessarily about free downloads but it’s news in regards to something us Zune people do quite often, copy copyrighted content on to our Zunes. The New York Times reported a couple of weeks ago that Microsoft had intended to setup measures to block copyrighted content from the Zune. Here’s a qoute from NYT and Ina Fried:

Adam Sohn as saying that the software maker is exploring antipiracy measures with NBC.

However, Microsoft quickly dispelled this as rubbish stating:

Microsoft has no plans or commitments to implement content filtering features in the Zune family of devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC,” the software maker said in a statement.

And Adam Sohn himself had this to say:

We’ve agreed to work with these guys on a number of issues, but we have no plans or commitment to put filtering technology as part of this arrangement with NBC,” he told CNET News.com.

Thus, this has the appearance (IMHO) of either being a case of severely quoting out of context or grossly misquoting by the New York Times and or Ina Fried.

Anyway, the bottom line is that Microsoft seems to have taken a firm stand not to be the Copyright Cops. Thank you Redmond for coming through for us!

Be Cool my Babies…