As you may or may not know, Microsoft recently agreed to share revenue from Zune sales with record labels and artists. And Universal Music Group (UMG) is the only label named in the program so far. UMG refused to license its music to Microsoft’s Zune unless it could receive a percentage of each Zune device sold, in addition to standard music licensing fees for downloads and subscriptions.

UMG CEO Doug Morris has said,”These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it.” Essentially he is calling all non-Zune users, or anyone using a device made by a company not giving UMG royalties, thieves. Now what’s going to happen? Is Morris going try and get royalties out of every device that is injected with Universal files.

Now I think Morris’s statement is completely ridiculous, as I am sure the majority of you do. Because, according to Morris’s statement, if you think about it - wouldn’t all users of laptops be thieves? I mean, what if you transfer music from your main computer to your laptop, it’s just a giant iPod. Does Microsoft agree with Morris on this? We don’t know, but we do know that Microsoft is trying to get all the labels on their side.

Mitch Wagner of InformationWeek hits the nail on the head when he says, “Some may be thieves, but all iPod owners are customers and potential customers of UMG’s product. Big media companies like Universal routinely think of their customers as the enemy, and they talk about it publicly. That’s a good way to put yourself out of business.”

What do you think?