Microsoft’s response was the launch of the MSN Music Store the following year. It ceased operations in 2006 and was never compatible with the company’s Zune media player, which uses the Zune Marketplace for music, videos, and the few apps that run on the touch-based Zune HD.
The 2003 emails are part of the thousands made public by a judge after the settlement of the Comes v. Microsoft antitrust lawsuit, according to Groklaw. Thos specific messages are found in a PDF of an exhibit from the case; Groklaw asks its readers for help transcribing other emails made public, so they can be searched by keyword.