|
|
Yahoo! to disable customers' music
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 25th July 2008
Customers who have bought music from the Yahoo! Music store will find the DRM blocking them from September.
First reported in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, the move comes as part of the company's partnership with RealNetwork's Rhapsody service. The plan is for the authentication servers to be taken offline on the 30th September, after which time the Windows Media DRM wrapped around songs downloaded from the service will render them unusable on new systems.
Yahoo! Music offered two purchasing options for music lovers – a subscription-based service where your music collection would stop working when you stopped paying, and an outright purchase option where once you'd made a one-off payment you owned the music. The problem stems from the fact that music from both options were wrapped in the same DRM – with the music purchased outright requiring authentication with an external server the first time it's played. While these songs will continue to work, the ability to move the music to another PC – if you upgrade, or if your main PC dies – is lost after September. The only option available to anyone who wants to backup their legitimately purchased music collection will be to take advantage of the ability to create an audio CD free from DRM using the files – a move which will severely degrade the audio quality due to restrictions built in to the DRM model.
CNet is reporting that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is stamping its feet over the issue, using Yahoo! Music's move as another illustration on why DRM should stand for Digital Restriction Management. Corynne McSherry, one of the EFF's attorneys, points out that “people think they can use music wrapped in digital rights management just like they do a CD. This should teach everyone that you can't.”
McSherry is also calling on Yahoo! Music to compensate customers for the music that they will be losing through no fault of their own – either by replacing the songs with DRM-free MP3 downloads, which I can't imagine the music labels agreeing to, or by refunding the purchase price.
Has anyone here got music they downloaded through the Yahoo! Music store that will be next to useless come September, or are we all too tech-saved to rely on a system riddled with DRM? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Related articles on bit-tech.net
Comments (20)
Maybe I'm just "dreaming of a better world" but these kinds of company using this stupid Digital Restriction Manipulation need to be given a big financial kick in the teeth to be told to stop it. Nokia's "Comes With Music" is even worse than Yahoo! though - your music is tied to your PHONE! You can't even put it on your PC let alone carry it over to a new phone!
Its mine.. I bought it,I own it, I ripped it... I will do anything I want with it !!!!! I wouldnt buy music from Yahoo or any other Internet Search / Advertising company !
The only mistake I made was in the early days I ripped most of my collection to AAC for use in iTunes, rather than non DRM mp3 format. Works well with iPods.... but not a whole lot else :-(
I'm not a pirate, I object to being treated like one. This was always the thin end of the wedge, which was driving us toward censorship of the Internet and the excessive use of technology to decode media. I don't remember 8 tracks, but I'll bet that you didn't have to use special cables or use a decoding chip hooked up to the 'net to listen to music.
What happened? How have we ended up in a situation where people are running scared from the entertainment industry.
I'd never purchase DRM'd music online... I have been tempted on the Play.com music download service to buy a CD as MP3s because I was finding it impossible to get the CD in question. As luck would have it, I resisted and found the CD on Amazon Marketplace a few weeks later.
As for a 'financial kick in the teeth' for the companies that force DRM down people's throats... their only response to that will be "OMG! They're not buying our DRM infested music! But they can't possibly be taking a stand at our unscrupulous business practices, they must just be pirating it! Piracy! PIRACY!" Then watch the lawsuits fly and politicians jump on the bandwagon as per usual.
I wonder if 'this story' hits the 09:00 News ?
btw, a couple of corrections in the first paragraph.
Its not worth it.
Just not any of the legal ones. ;)
I really hope this brings some light to bear on the uselessness of DRM.
Those evil pirating types (ie, most of us here probably) know how to defeat it and its the average pleb that gets stung, even after purchasing it legitimately.
Utter horse manure IMO.
Download music illegally and you might as well steal an instrument from your favorite band, if no one payed, no one would have music because the artists would not exist.
QFT. The more they try to clamp down, the more they drive people to piracy. That doesn't excuse piracy, but still. Time for some different tactics.
As more bands offer there music I'm doing this more and more. A lot of new bands are doing this through services through myspace and such, so far none I have dl'd have been drm, just straight up mp3. I feel better about dl'ing direct from the bands myspace or site than I do about buying their cd on amazon; though I don't know for sure, I can only assume the band is getting a much better cut. Mostly though, I support bands by seeing their shows and buying cd's from thier merch table.
"CNet is reporting that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is stamping its feet over the issue, using Yahoo! Music's move as another illustration on why DRM should stand for Digital Restriction Management. Corynne McSherry, one of the EFF's attorneys, points out that “people think they can use music wrapped in digital rights management just like they do a CD. This should teach everyone that you can't.”"
The EFF is a freaking joke. They can't do crap. I don't know why they even call them attourneys... I have yet to see the EFF make a difference like they state they will.