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DRM Alternatives Blog


The following announcement is a shameless plug, I’m going to promote the new blog that I have created called DRM Alternatives. You will like the blog if you are fed up with the music industry and think that the relationship between artists and fans should be based on trust instead of mistrust which describes the current relationship.

The music industry tries everthing to punish and suppress the desire of the customers by adding DRM and copy protection to the music that they sell. I’m trying to create a community around that blog and hope that I will see lots of visitors from ghacks at my new blog as well. It would also be nice if some of you would like to write articles for my new blog, I think the time is right to spread the word that there is more to music than that what the music industry tries to force upon us.

I will post at least one article daily that links to new free music, artists and ways to download or rip music from the internet. Only legal ways will be posted of course but there is that much to discover that I’m sure that every music taste will find something useful over there.

Well, I hope to see you there soon. Please let me know how you like the new blog and send me sources, links, tips, improvements, ideas and everything else that you can think off.




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Categories: Cool, Entertainment, ghacks


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9 Responses to “DRM Alternatives Blog”

  1. lenny says:

    wish u all the best on ur new blog and hope it has the success of ghacks

  2. Lorissa says:

    I’m sorry, but I guess I’ve never quite understood why you (and your followers) think the people who own the rights to music, videos, software, etc., don’t have a right to make a profit from it?

    And, in order to attempt to keep people like you and me from stealing it, they devise ways to protect it … much the same as you would attempt to protect your property from the scumbags that would steal it from you.

    Can you reasonably explain this to me?

  3. Martin says:

    Sure I can try that Lorissa.

    The Music Industry has of course every right to price their products the way they want and they can add all the protection that they want to it. This is their right and it is my right to dislike the way they price the music and protect it.

    I personally made the decision to stay away from mainstream media for several reasons one is that they punish their customers by adding copy protection to the music. If you know the internet you can download every album and song most of the time before it is released without having to worry about copy protection.

    I think it is my right to be able to listen to music that I purchased on ym iPod for example. I buy a music CD and can’t copy the music to my iPod or listen to it on my Pc if it is copy protected. This is not acceptable for me.

    I’m not forcing them to change their stance on the subject at all, I have just decided for myself that I do not want to support this.

    DRM is in my opinion a clever way of cashing in multiple times from the same “consumer”. If you want to stay on the legal side you will have to buy the CD if you want to listen to it in your CD player and you will have to buy the song online again to be able to listen to it in your mp3 player and probably a third time if you want to listen to it in your car as well without moving the Cd around all the time.

    I don’t download their music btw, I only download and support free music. I listen to internet radio and rip music from the radio which is perfectly legal. This is not mainstream music on the other hand.

    Hope I could clarify my point of view a little bit.

  4. Lorissa says:

    But, your argument about not being able to listen to music on a protected CD is weak and you know it. Besides there are programs out there which can, as a rule, defeat the protection scheme anyway.

    What they are trying to prevent is the tremendous mass distribution of their music from only one purchase of a CD. People don’t just copy tunes to their iPods, they upload them and the entire CD to various sites on the internet, where hundreds of thousands of people obtain them for free. That quite simply isn’t right, and it will eventually cause the music/entertainment business to go broke. We have become a World of freeloaders, with morons walking around with their hands out wanting everything for free, feeling it is their right to have it for free. Geez, there are a lot of stupid, down right ignorant people in the World.

    As you said, there are sites where you can download individual songs for a small price. You can upload those songs to your iPod and you can also burn your own CD from them, so again I question why all the fuss?

    • Martin says:

      Lorissa my argument is not weak. You do know that it is illegal in some countries, including my own, to copy data from copy protected source which means that using the tools to circumvent the protection would be illegal.

      I agree that spreading (commercial) music should not happen in such a large scale. If you like the music buy it, rip it from radio or simply ignore it.

      It is my opinion that there are enough alternatives to commercial music and that is what my new blog will be all about.

  5. Thinker says:

    Lorissa you not right.
    If I have to pay for music I just switch to radio. I wont pay for it. So will artist lose money? No, they dont lose money, they would never earn.

    I will tell you one simple example. I got Warcraf 3. After playing pirated version I decided to buy original one. But I need to use third-party software to be able to play that game, since %#@%#@ blizzard forces me to have original CD in my DVD-ROM. And what for is that, since without valid CD-key it’s impossible to play on battle.net.

    Same with MP3’s. If I can download MP3, and then, if I liked it pay for it – I will do. Look at wikipedia how many people donate project – noone is forced to pay, first people use, then they pay if they want. That is best idea ever for me.

  6. mark says:

    Hope to see some good writing on that blog as it may help direct me to proper resources for my thesis paper ;)

  7. Lorissa says:

    Thinker – Sorry, but I am right, in fact I am rarely wrong about anything I post … just ask Martin. :)

    Your argument not only makes little sense, your reasoning isn’t even remotely sound or even logical. Think I am wrong, tell me what line of work you are in and I’ll give you an example using your own argument against you quite easily.

    The point is, few people in the world would pay for something they can get for free, if they did no one would worry about it and copy protection of any kind wouldn’t be necessary. But, everyone knows, the honor system just doesn’t work and never will.

    You can rarely listen to an entire album on the radio. You get to hear a few songs from it for free, but you can’t always listen to them when you want. So, the radio broadcasts are “teasers”. If you like the song and want to be able to hear it instantly it is hoped that you will purchase the album, and if not at least the individual song. Get it?

    Now you can do what Martin indicates he does, and tape record the songs desired from the radio. However, that results in a poor quality sound (might not matter to some) and the ability to edit the tracks as well. I mean, perfect recording from the radio without editing would be overwhelmingly impossible.

    Using your argument, lets say you wanted a fence built around your property. You called a contractor and told him to built the fence and if you liked it, you would pay him. If you didn’t like it, you would not pay him … but of course you would have the fence either way. The contractor would be out the cost of materials, labor, amortization of his education, marketing, equipment, etc., but again you would still have a new fence cost free. How long do you think you could stay in business if it was you who was the contractor?

    This thread is about DRM protection of music CDs, and has nothing to do with you games. If you wish to bring games into a discussion here, perhaps you should start an appropriate thread.

  8. Vincent says:

    I just don’t get it. I have dl’d tons of stuff over the years and now for the 1st time I have a file that I can’t play, burn or anything else. The file, “Lost Pepperland Reels, etc.” is illegal to begin with but it has DRM-Protection. What’s the purpose of making it public if you can’t at least play it? I have tried so many programs in an attempt to be able to hear the files but no luck. Any suggestions as the files sound interesting and I would like to hear them.

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