I’m sure you know about the Zune’s wireless music sharing capabilities, but I bet you didn’t know that Microsoft wants to pay you a commission when someone purchases a song you have shared! I didn’t either, until I saw this post over at ZuneScene describing a recently discovered Microsoft patent application:

According to the patent, Microsoft would like to erect a system by which pirated music (yes the term pirated is used in the document several times) can be transferred to other Zune devices, and the sender can be paid a sales commission. Of course this would work with legally obtained music also.

Apparently the idea is to make pirated music “encrypted” when shared with another Zune. If I understand this correctly, it works like this. I have a DRM-free song on my Zune and I send it to your Zune. You can then play the song three times, before you have to purchase it. When you do, Zune Marketplace, me, and the copyright holder all get paid.

Converting illegal music into legal music is an interesting concept, but I am not sure how well such a system would work in practice.

You can view the patent details here.