The idea behind preventing the piracy of music by adding code to it is flawed. All protection can be removed (or added if that is the protection) but the difference between music and software is that music doesn’t have upgrades so it’s removed and that’s the end of it. Software can connect to the internet to verify things, have patches to require cracking again, and so on so forth. Bill realizes that and goes with what makes him the most money.

Even if bill was to protect Zune in a way that would require constant upgrades & protection changes, he’d have no where to go with iPod being his competition. So don’t read into his words too much. It’s the other things he left unsaid that speak on the subject.