Mr. Jobs’s call for unrestricted music sales was “irresponsible, or at the very least naïve,” adding, “It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen.”

“He’s certainly a master of the obvious,” Mr. Reindorp said, adding that “the stars were already aligning” to loosen the restrictions.

It looks like we'll need an astrologer to find out the time of the DRM death! Of course keep in mind that Zune MarketPlace has a subscription plan (Zune Pass) which iTunes don't have. Its not so easy to talk about DRM-free Zune Pass. It could be impossible for this kind of services to survive.

[via NYtimes] (Its on page 2 of the article)

EDIT: ZuneInsider has also a comment from Microsoft about this:

Rather than issue a manifesto/mandate, we (Microsoft) will continue with our label partners towards our long-standing vision: enabling seamless playback of content in whatever scenarios make sense for the consumer.  Of course, there are many ways to bring that vision to life.

Read the full article . 

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Steve Jobs: Time to say bye bye DRM