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Gateway to Ship PCs with Pre-Installed DRM Music Files
Captain Chad writes "News.com has an article about Gateway's decision to bundle Pressplay's music service with its PCs. Of interest is the fact that 2000 popular songs will come pre-installed, helping reduce download time for those of us with modems." I wonder how much Pressplay is paying for this privilege. All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access.
The poster says that the computer contains data which you cannot legally access. I would actually interpret that you can access it, you just cannot legally try to go around the protection mechanism that pressplay has put on it.
"After the free trials, consumers can get the Pressplay service, which provides more than 200,000 songs and additional features, with pricing options starting from $9.95 a month. "
So basically, it's a big ad? Nothing new here.. And we all know that the files will be cracked extremely quickly (of course, some geek will have to fess up and admit to buying one of these!). No matter, they'll all be songs I wouldn't want anyway - the "pop"ular stuff that the radio plays day in and day out, no doubt.
In general, it's a good idea, but if you think about it: 5 megs on average per file (guess) x 2000 = 10,000 megs... That's a LOT of wasted space for something you're not supposed to be using until you pay for! So, yeah, I'm paying extra to waste space. Nice.
No, not necessarily. You would have to comply with the full terms of the license agreement, whatever they may be. For example, the agreement may require you to remove the files after xx days or after x uses or pay a additonal fees. I believe the article mentions a 90-day trial to access the 2,000 songs.
License more than 200 songs from mainstream and niche artists, encode them to 160Kbps MP3s, and bundle them on new i-Systems.
No DRM. No free trial. Just free music.
Mix. Burn. Repeat.
2000 "popular" DRMed songs you can listen to for 90 days, or about 300 encompassing all genres of music that you can listen to forever? Hmm.
I would have to venture that the idea here is to get new computer buyers (who we can therefore assume do not have an encompasing understanding of DRM, the legalities of file-sharing, etc...) latched into this turn-key system. I'm sure that whatever tool they're using to front-end this initiative has DRM dripping off the edges and will allow you to rip your own music to their proprietary (read:can't take it no-where else and don't even think about trying to share it P2P) format and get the user's locked in. Someone has taken a hint from M$ and is looking to get the 'Embrace and Extend' initiative rolling in the music world.
Now you may call me cynical, but I highly doubt that this tool will play nicely with standard P2P tools. Would you put it past someone like PressPlay to have any mp3's touched by the system either re-encoded in a DRM-friendly format with minimal warning to the user (click here to import all you files into the PressPlay AudioVault of Doom...)
or some obnoxious and legaly-questionable click-wrap aggreement that consists of 15 pages of legal bum-fodder that allows them to show up at your house in the middle of the night, rape your dog, kick your grandmother down the stairs and flag all the audio files on your machine with a unique fingerprint that gets matched with your machine ID and therefore your RW identity... hmm, Little Timmy has been uploading his Smurfs Christmas Album to Sweet Suzie. RIAA, sic'em!)
{/sarcasm}
Anyhow, I cannot fault Gateway for trying to provide their customers a value-added item like this (like smallpox to the Native-Americans...) I see this as becoming a troubling trend as more companies with DRM products start co-branding with big names in the PC field and set this plague loose on the face of the planet.
In the meantime, I'll stick with my ogg-vorbis/mp3 server running linux.
"If I wanted your input on my pet project, I'd stick my hand up your ass and use you like a sock-puppet." - Muse
"All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access. "
So what? I bought a name brand PC a few weeks ago that came with Quicken Deluxe on it, to be used only if I have bought the reg key.
The real issue here is that this won't work: within two weeks of these bad boys hitting the street, there will be dozens of postings on how to circumvent Pressplay's reg/purchase code strategy and gain access to all of the music, just as I can go to any one of dozens of sites for hacks into getting my unregistered copy of Quicken to work. I wouldn't do this, of course: no no, not me....
There's a metaphor here from Apocalypse Now: the Bridge at Do Long. Every day the Americans would rebuild the bridge, and every night the Vietnamese would blow it up. Each new tack by the RIAA and its DMCA cronies to secure rights in this fashion will be defeated, sometimes within minutes of hitting the street.
This points to the need for them to dynamite their business model and think up something new: how many people actually pay for content? (And porn doesn't count. Besides, porn is largely stolen anyway!) The answer is none, zero, nada. AOL-TimeWarner's about to find this out the hard way. Gateway and Pressplay are making it easier than some to circumvent by the fact that the files are on your machine, and you can ostensibly do what you want to with them without them knowing. But even if you had to download them, you'll still be able to hack them.
"Don't matter how New Age you get, old age is gonna kick your ass." - Utah Phillips
Disney Interactive about 4-7 years ago used to include entire programs with its computers but would disable them until you paid an online payment to them.
This is way back though. I just remember trying to figure out how to get through the disabling so I could play... Never figured it out. (I was really young then.) All I knew is that if you signed up with them (it would dial a long distance number and give your info to them), the programs would become active.
Perhaps now with the internet, more people will go out of their way to break the DRM, but I am willing to say most will either pay to listen to them, or just continue downloading like they always have using morpheus or something similar.
~ kjrose