Shit Talk DRM, Microsoft Sucks
posted by on April 23 at 14:18 PM
Wired reports today that anyone who bought DRM-protected MP3s from Microsoft’s now-defunct digital music store, MSN Music, is basically screwed:
Music fans who purchased music from Microsoft’s MSN Music service are in for another cruel awakening about the harsh realities of digital rights management. As of September 1, it will become impossible to reauthorize songs purchased from the MSN Music store, which Microsoft shuttered to make way for Zune.Music purchased from MSN Music will still play on authorized machines, but users only have five operating systems left in their entire lifetimes on which to play the music. I say “operating systems” instead of “computers” because even when a user upgrades, say from XP to Vista, songs need to be reauthorized.
What should you do if you want to keep your music? As Sony advised its users to do when it closed down Sony Connect, you can burn CDs of your purchased tracks and re-rip them. Of course, this degrades sound quality because it forces the music through the encoding process twice.
In related news: Did you know Zune has a radio built in?! You kids still like your FM radio, right?
"You kids still like your FM radio, right?"
um. yeah.
There's an even better way to permanently keep the tunes you purchased legally on msn: download them from a peer-to-peer network and never pay for them again.
I was going to post something along those lines, #2, but I thought maybe it's just old, old news that DRM is never going to encourage people to stop sharing files, that in fact it's going to drive people to share files rather than paying for music encoded with malware. DRM is the future like FM radio is the future.
Old news to you and me, but it sure seems like the RIAA, Microsoft and various other DRM boosters still haven't gotten the memo.
5 operating systems? What's that, like 30 years? I've heard that CD's have a life expectancy of about 10 years (because the glue that holds the metal inside the plastic fails and the metal corrodes). I've also seen this happen in my own collection. 5 operating systems seems fair enough.
Um, if you're listening to an mp3, can you really complain about sound quality caused by burning then ripping? It already sounds like ass, might as well make it a hairy ass.
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