Microsoft's No-Zune Zone

The goal of digital rights management is one that wouldn't cause most people who buy music to balk -- protecting copyright owners from piracy. But in many cases, effective DRM has meant constraining limits on features that many consumers take as a given. Microsoft, in searching for a comprehensive DRM solution for digital media, has too often erred on the side of the constraints.

The constraints on the Zune are, in light of other music players, crazy. Songs bought at the Zune Marketplace (Microsoft's answer to iTunes) won't play on non-Zune devices. Songs bought elsewhere -- iTunes, Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody -- won't play on the Zune. Songs beamed to other Zunes expire after three days, or three listens, whichever come first.

There are growing concerns that the kinds of DRM restrictions plaguing Zune also will hamstring Microsoft's Vista upgrade to Windows, which is due to be released over the next few months. If those fears pan out, then it will pull the legs out from under the biggest potential driver of Microsoft future revenue growth -- and that won't go over well with investors. (Ironically, there are reports that Zune is not yet compatible with Vista.)

Above all, Microsoft seems to have lost sight of how important simplicity is. It was one thing to force complex software on users when Microsoft ruled PC software. It's another to keep at it when there are many alternatives in the market -- as is the case today, not just with music players, but increasingly on open-source rivals to Microsoft's core products.

Given all that, it's not much of a surprise that the image that is quickly becoming the most closely associated with Zune is the photo on the page telling you that your Zune software didn't install correctly. The photo of a young woman with her face scrunched up in some intense emotion is just bizarre enough to stick in your memory. It's spreading like a virus in the tech blogosphere.

People who have enough time on their hands have puzzled over what the expression is on the woman's face. Pleasure? Pain? Anger?

Or maybe something else entirely. Why, it must be the very look of crack-a-lackin.

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