Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Why You Should Never Buy DRM Content
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 12:00 PM
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3626
"By way of Cory Doctorow, comes a pointer to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's take on Microsoft's new Zune: a brand that has broken ranks with the Redmond-based company's previous digital rights management (DRM) strategy that attempted to establish an ecosystem of compatibility (under the name "PlaysForSure") between content merchants (ie: AOL, Yahoo, Amazon, etc.), the copy protection on the content they sold, and the software and devices that could play that content."
If you look at footnote 4 in Microsoft's press release you'll find "Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264."
Now, maybe it can redownload content from Napster, Rhapsody, Cinemanow and other DRM suppliers, it just can't import it, but I really doubt this is the case. For whatever reason, Microsoft is charting a new course with the Zune that will leave any of you with DRM protected content out in the cold. This is why I have purchased less than $50 of protected content over the years and 100% of it has been burned to a CD and ripped back with no protection. Those of you that left the "Protect Content" box in WMP9 or WMP10 checked and didn't realize you were protecting your own content may have to rerip all of your CDs to play on the Zune. Personally, I am still looking forward to the Zune. I have no purchased protected content and don't really plan to, but it would be nice if it could play Tivo2Go files, which are protected as they are transferred across my network.
"By way of Cory Doctorow, comes a pointer to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's take on Microsoft's new Zune: a brand that has broken ranks with the Redmond-based company's previous digital rights management (DRM) strategy that attempted to establish an ecosystem of compatibility (under the name "PlaysForSure") between content merchants (ie: AOL, Yahoo, Amazon, etc.), the copy protection on the content they sold, and the software and devices that could play that content."
If you look at footnote 4 in Microsoft's press release you'll find "Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264."
Now, maybe it can redownload content from Napster, Rhapsody, Cinemanow and other DRM suppliers, it just can't import it, but I really doubt this is the case. For whatever reason, Microsoft is charting a new course with the Zune that will leave any of you with DRM protected content out in the cold. This is why I have purchased less than $50 of protected content over the years and 100% of it has been burned to a CD and ripped back with no protection. Those of you that left the "Protect Content" box in WMP9 or WMP10 checked and didn't realize you were protecting your own content may have to rerip all of your CDs to play on the Zune. Personally, I am still looking forward to the Zune. I have no purchased protected content and don't really plan to, but it would be nice if it could play Tivo2Go files, which are protected as they are transferred across my network.
