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Zune's Viral DRM Will Violate Creative Commons

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the zune-make-cc-angry dept.

lopy writes "Medialoper has noted that Zune's highly touted wireless file sharing will infect otherwise unprotected audio files with proprietary DRM. In cases where users are sharing songs covered by any of the Creative Commons licenses, this would be a clear violation of those license. From the CC FAQ: 'If a person uses DRM tools to restrict any of the rights granted in the license, that person violates the license.' It'll be interesting to see how and if the CC community responds." An anonymous reader wrote in mentioning a post to the Crave blog, relatedly exploring how the Zune stacks up to the iPod.

7 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Contributory and Vicarious Infringement by russotto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's time to sue Microsoft for contibutory and vicarious infringement for doing this. Use the Grokster case as precedent. It's time the pro-DRM side got a taste of their own legal medicine.

    1. Re:Contributory and Vicarious Infringement by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Informative

      I guess we just need a load of CC-licensed artists to form some kind of Association and pool their resources. I look forward to the first case being filed!

      Don't hold your breath. My interpretation of MS's press release is that Creative Commons music will not be shared at all unless they are selling them through MS's online store and authorize it by opting in. Songs you rip yourself will not be sharable. This seems to be purely a marketing feature to advertise songs you bought to others and get them to buy them when they stop playing after 3 days. It will only work for songs bought from MS's store and whose publishers specified it to be sharable/advertising enabled.

  2. I don't know if Microsoft is liable here... by nebaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The FAQ on the article basically does not allow a person to distribute a creative commons work that has been modified with DRM. Microsoft is doing no such thing. While their software will DRM-ify the song, it is the end user who is using the Zune as the mechanism of distribution. Clearly the works are available without the DRM, as the original user got the song in the first place. This seems to me to be an issue of a transport layer. If you know Microsoft will always DRM, and you try to use this mechanism to distribute CC'd licensed works, then perhaps you are the one who is in violation of the license.

    --
    Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
  3. Re:Who is liable? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny
    Assuming the Zune allows violation of the Creative Commons license in this way, who is liable? Is it Microsoft, for making the device, or the user, for distributing Creative Commons-licensed material in a way that's incompatible with its license?


    You must be new here.
  4. Re:Does it really wrap non-WMA files? by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...it would be nice to know exactly where he got the information that Zune would also wrap non-WMA, non-DRMed files in a DRM layer. Does it really do that? Anyone have a source?

    The original source quoted is Forbes Magazine's article with direct quotes from Microsoft spokespersons, however, in reading that article it seems to me to imply that only a subset of songs bought from MS's version of the ITunes store will be available for sharing and it implies that any other music simply won't be able to be shared at all, including Creative Commons works, although the wording lends itself to ambiguity.

  5. Re:fool me once... by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The RIAA is not a law enforcement group, hell they're not even part of the government. They can't send you to jail. They can call the Feebs on you or take you to court seeking damages. That's it.

    The **AAs love how people think that they're law enforcement. They encourage people to think that by wearing those stupid "FBI" knockoff "**AA" windbreakers.

    --
    Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  6. Re:fool me once... by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 5, Funny

    No kidding. I am so sick of Slashdot's pro-microsoft anti-apple bias!