Home Messages Index
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index

Re: [News] Yet Another Music Shop Kills DRM

Roy Schestowitz wrote:

> Musicload to get rid of DRM
> 
> ,----[ quote ]
> | PR experts at the music platform say that the common front of
> | those advocating DRM is beginning to break up. Long touted
> | as a panacea for illegal copies of songs, the protective
> | mechanisms are once again being discussed. The Musicload
> | newsletter chimes in on the criticism of the blocks on copies
> | when it complains that some songs purchased online cannot be
> | played back on just any device without further ado.
> `----
> 
> http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/86968/from/rss09
> 
> Yesterday in the BBC:
> 
> Digital lock's rights and wrongs
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | DRM-free or otherwise, at least some more imaginative approaches to
> | music services have been appearing. Spiralfrog promises
> | ad-supported downloads - when or if it eventually launches.
> | 
> | Aimee Street has launched. Here, the price of each track is
> | decided by its popularity. Less popular or new tracks are free,
> | rising to a maximum of 98 cents if their popularity increases. At
> | the moment it deals almost exclusively in independent music.
> `----
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6457369.stm
> 
> Remember: a loss to DRM is a big loss to Microsoft and a win to Free
> software.
> 
> 
> Related:
> 
> Microsoft: We Like DRM
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Steve Jobs wants the music business to drop restrictions for digital
> | tunes. But Microsoft, which began competing head to head with Apple
> | in the digital music business last fall, is happy with the way things
> | are, says media exec Robbie Bach.
> `----
> 
>
http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/08/zune-drm-itunes-tech-media-cx_df_0208bach.html?partner=yahootix
> http://tinyurl.com/2lrz3y
> 
> 
> Why Microsoft will fight for DRM
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | In a DRM-free world Windows Media formats are basically dead.
> | Online stores locked out of the iPod because of FairPlay. Will
> | not choose to lock themselves out by using only Windows Media if
> | they use it at all. I think it?s obvious that the people at
> | Microsoft know that. When the number one MP3 player will never
> | support your format, Microsoft is left with a lot invested in
> | something that won?t amount to much. The only way Microsoft
> | can save its investment in Windows Media is to have a DRM
> | Windows Media player that is a run away success. This is why
> | Microsoft will not join with Apple in calling for a DRM-free
> | world. They need DRM so they are going to fight for it.
> `----
> 
> http://km.lqz.ca/blog/tech/microsoft-fight-drm/
> 
> 
> Microsoft launches 'PlayReady' DRM system
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Although digital rights management (DRM) is popular with content
> | creators, it has attracted criticism. Sony was widely attacked after
> | using a rootkit-like application to hide content protection on some
> | music CDs, and earlier this month Apple CEO Steve Jobs called on
> | the music industry to drop its use of DRM.
> `----
> 
>
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6158553.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
> 
> 
> Golden Rant : Microsoft DRM's gone too far
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Microsoft appears to have hit the wrong button on its critical
> | Windows XP download service late last month, pretty well forcing
> | every XP user to upgrade to Windows Media Player (WiMP) 11 if
> | they (like me and many others) have the automatic download/install
> | option enabled for critical updates.
> `----
> 

It is all going very wrong and will not only be bad for MS but also bad for
the music industry.

You may have a few hundred songs that you have legitimately bought from
various online sites over the last few years. They play on your XP, car CD
player, the DVD in your living room. 

Then the new Vista owner gets home and sets up his nice new PC, pops his
favourite CD of this music he has bought into it and gets the message 'We
can not prove you have the licence for this music', and refuses to play it.

It then asks you to log in to a music buying place so it can check that you
have a licence, but this is music that you have been buying for years, you
can't remember which sites you bought each song or album from. Even if you
guess that some of it came from a particular site, and your login and
password are still valid for that site, MS can only check with a handfull
of vendors. So, if that user only has Vista then all of that music is now
worth diddly squat. If the user wants that music he/she has to pay for it
again.

How can the user be certain that in a couple more years MS will not have
changed that again so music they buy now will play after the next upgrade?

They can't. People will either keep a system that can play their music,
Linux or XP, or they will go for the free ripped copies because they will
feel that they have a right to it, due to the fact that they have already
paid once.

I suspect that they will be much more reluctant to buy online. 

My main music place is iTunes and my Realplayer, it works really well on
Linux, I never have any bother from it, I make some CDs to play in the
garage or garden, but mostly I play from the PC. That is pretty much the
norm for music isn't it, you buy music and scatter it around your house,
you don't want to have the worry that you might have to buy all of this
music again if you change your computer OS.




[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index