[TomJensen]

This is how the future of online entertainment is going to look. Not to say that WMC is gonna be it, but any mainstream media aggregator will have to license content from the content owners. Yes, you can do like XBMC and reverse-engineer any CP to get content w/o permission, but it's going to be a cat&mouse process, fit only for techies who can spend the time keeping up with the game. Mainstream folks will need to go legit, and WMC (or Apple iTunes), once it gets its act together, will be the mainstay. Opinions?

"Windows Media Center launches sports channel"
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10189207-93.html

[jmarshall]

In my opinion, the content providers will eventually open things up to everyone.

They have no choice: Otherwise, people will continue to obtain better versions (i.e. no adverts, and can be played anywhere at anytime) of their content from elsewhere.

The only way to compete with free is to beat it on convenience. This means making it playable everywhere. People will pay if they can play ™.

Cheers,
Jonathan