Everything about Microsoft and WMA you've said is true, but moot.

Microsoft can't do a "bait and switch" with WMA on the Empeg because the WMA files that the Empeg will use are not the ones with DRM. They also can't make all existing copies of Windows Media Encoder disappear. No matter what features they added to the software, our existing WMA files will work, and we will be able to continue to use it. The cat is "out of the bag." The *most* they could do would be to keep newer versions of the format away from us, but if the version we have is good enough, who cares?

The only caveat would be if the license with MS had some kind of clause where Microsoft could at some point decide that Empeg no longer has the right to include WMA support in their new software releases. That might suck just a little bit. I don't know if the terms of the license are something Empeg folks could comment on... That knowledge might help us decide if we should use WMA or not.

I still haven't decided if I am going to use WMA or MP3 when I re-encode, but if I decide against WMA, it won't be because of any of my personal grudges against Microsoft. I will gladly put those aside for the purposes of getting higher quality music on my Empeg. As long as we're assured that WMA in its current form will be included with all future Empeg releases, I would feel safe using WMA.