DRM (Digital Rights Management) is slowly getting out of company executive heads and several stores are successfully selling music that is DRM free. That’s a good thing for the customer who can transfer the songs that he bought to other devices and even burn them on CD if he likes. We are however not at [...]

Categories: Music and Video, Security

I don’t own an iPod or any other music player so this post is not really something I’ve tried out yet. First it was Amazon, then iTunes, and now Napster. What am I referring to? DRM-free music of course. Everyone who’s ever experienced music with DRM knows just how frustrating things can get. You buy [...]

Categories: Music Industry, Online Services, The Web

Mobile phone giant Nokia is looking for a foothold into the music distribution business. To that end, Nokia has introduced an online music service called the Nokia Music Store in Australia. Their aim is to provide a service that will take on Apple’s iTunes and win. There’s nothing wrong in wanting to beat iTunes. However, [...]

Categories: ask the readers, ie, Mobiles, Music Industry, Nokia, Online Services, Windows

Those users who made purchases in online stores that were using DRM to “protect” the files from being copied and traded are slowly beginning to reap what they sowed. I never bought music or other files that were protected by DRM. The protection is not that hard to crack anyway if someone really wanted to [...]

Categories: Music and Video, Music Industry

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.

Categories: Music and Video, Music Industry

My initial answer was one – of course – but then I realized that it is not that easy to answer. One video player is enough to play most videos on my computer, I use SMPlayer for this purpose. But what about all those video portals from tv companies or other companies that rent or distribute videos online ? It is beginning to get a little messy now.

Categories: Music and Video, Software

NBC wants more control on pricing and usage restrictions while Apple did not want to give in which is why the current relationship between those two is a little bit icy and it remains unclear if NBC shows will still be available in iTunes at years end. Meanwhile Amazon and NBC announced that NBC’s tv shows will be made available on Unbox.

Categories: Music and Video

We had two reports last week that gave us the reason why DRM and WGA will fail in the long run. The first story was about Google Video who sold videos with DRM and closed down their service leaving everyone who purchased those videos standing in the rain because it will not be possible to play those videos after Google Video shuts down.

Categories: Music and Video, Music Industry, The Web

I just read an interesting article at Arstechnica by Ken Fisher who was commenting on the termination of Google’s commercial Video service. The termination takes effect in just two days which would not be a big problem if the users who bought or rented videos from the service would still be able to play their purchased videos after that date.

Categories: Music and Video, Music Industry, Online Services