I always asked myself what the main reason for DRM – digital rights media – really is. It – maybe – can be used to stop legit buyers from giving a song to their friends or relatives but it surely does not step the spreading of music at all. Music pirates do get the music before any shop has them in their inventory which in turn means that everyone with a little bit of knowledge about P2P services can get their hands on the music.
If it’s not about preventing the music from being spread, what is it about then ? That’s the question. My thoughts are that someone sold DRM to the CEOs and Executives and that they, with their limited technical understanding thought that it would prevent music piracy. In the end, only the consumers who purchase music are screwed, as you can see in this fine example.
Sony decided to close down their Connect music store that tried to push once again a proprietary format. They miserably failed and that is probably the main reason for the closure. The problem for consumers however is that the music that they purchased from that store had DRM in it.
Don’t worry, the music will play just fine after the store closes down, that is, unless you happen to change your computer hardware. Because at this point, it will stop playing. Ain’t that great ? You bought music thinking that you could enjoy it for the rest of your life only to find out that it won’t play if you change computer hardware or use a new computer.
I’m not sure how you see this but I think that this is absolutely unacceptable. If they want to use DRM they have to make sure that music will play even if they decided to close down their store or change their policy or whatever. My advice: Don’t buy music with DRM ever.
Closing lines are from the Download Squad article, very fitting I think:
DRM does not prevent piracy. DRM merely shafts loyal, paying customers who choose to legitimately obtain their media online
Related posts:
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Copy-protected CDs turning music fans off record buying
Yahoo Does A Microsoft
Downloading pirated films is stealing
CD-Wow to pay £41m to British record companies
You 101% right. Like Russian-speaking bloggers say, I can put my signing under every word of your post.
And we all remember that case about Google video premium shutdown – with similar consequenses, don’t we?
No DRM ever!