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Microsoft DRM To Get Even Tighter
Toreo asesino writes, "Microsoft is tightening the screws on their up & coming DRM platform. First, Windows Media Player 11 removes the right to move music from one machine to another. According to their website, WMP11 'does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses).' Worse, if you rip your own CDs and the 'Copy protect music' option is turned on, WMP11 will require you to 'connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.'" The Inquirer has an even more jaundiced take on Microsoft's turn of the thumbscrew.
Even tighter DRM? Wow... tell me again why I should install Vista?
Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
how they still manage to speak of "your rights" when there are virtually none left to speak of...
Also saw "Cannot play back recorded TV that is protected with media usage rights in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 after 3 days". Man this so makes me want to get all tricked out with a Zune and windows break-my-media center, because they all look so nice and they 'just work'. This must be that 'microsoft standard' thingy I keep hearing about all the time. Standard - that's when you get to arbitrarily break things that used to work, right?
See - monopolies really do work better than an open marketplace of ideas.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
The more you tighten your grip, the more music listeners will slip through your fingers.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
Also, it would be nice if one could use WMP to rip CDs without crippling DRM. When the news is about a piece of software that's installed on massive numbers of computers worldwide, it's newsworthy even if you don't have to use it.
This is just one more reason Im going to stick to CD's. If I like the artist then I go out a buy there CD. That way I can play it where ever I want in what ever device I need. If it gets to the point the CD are so full of DRM then ill just listen to the radio for free. No DRM via radio waves!
~ Diagonally Parked in a Parallel Universe ~
Excellent! I knew we could count on the MegaCorps of the world to demonstrate the drawbacks of DRM more effectively than any consumer rights activist ever could. The more they tighten down the restrictions, the more people will be inconvenienced by DRM, and the more people will care. Perhaps, one day, they will even be enlightened about what proprietary DRM systems do to interoperability and consumer choice.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Microsoft is trying to kill DRM.
Never underestimate the power of idiots in large numbers.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Without all this DRM everywhere, I don't think we as a society would ever write another line of music. Ever.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
I've always wondered at people who bash the iTunes DRM since it is actually pretty nice to the user (as you mentioned). DRM like Microsoft's is the wrong kind of DRM. It starts from the assumption that the user is a criminal and given the opportunity will share their music with millions unless stopped by someone. The DRM on iTunes, on the other hand, is actually very nice IMHO. I can transfer music to my iPod with no problems. I can burn playlists to as many CDs as I like. I can have multiple systems access my iTunes account (home, laptop, work, etc). MS is just shooting themselves in the foot and driving yet more people to iTunes, iPod, and Apple.
Space for rent, inquire within
I think I'm just plain done with Windows. I'll either defect to Apple or (more likely) go exclusively to Ubuntu and purchase Cedega to run the games I have.
Of course, I say this recalling that, once upon I time, I removed windows from my computer and installed OS/2. I really liked OS/2 but, unfortunately, IBM apparantly did not.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Isn't that normal? Isn't that what will eventually provide a market correction? Eventually Joe is going to find that 500$ worth of music he has bought over the last two years is locked into a dying PC or a stolen Zune and he has to pay all over again to get his music back. Then his friend Smartli Nuxuser tells him why he would never have that predicament at the watercooler. Happens repeatedly. Gets retold repeatedly. Joe gets mad
When Joe Sixpacks gets mad, he really gets mad. He sues left right and center. Start class action lawsuits. When CA builds million miles of highways and sues the car makers fo CO2 emissions, why cant Joe Sixpack sue MSFT? It can write all the EULA it wants, but when you get millions of Joe Sixpacks mad, all bets are off.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Yeah because instead of downloading one of the myriad of other Windows software programs that rip CDs to DRMless formats, I'm going to switch operating systems instead. Ripping CDs is not an OS issue. Please don't try to make it one.
This is the typical machiavellian style corporate/political anouncement. They'll tune down a little on the real DRM just before release and then all the dumbass ords will say "No, they changed that. It's not that bad as you say. MS are nice people and they build cool stuff." In the end people will get screwed over .... and they'll probably approve.
Welcome to the world of cyberpunk.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
it seems like Microsoft are trying their hardest to confuse people as to when they can and cannot play their music.
Look, it's PERFECTLY simple: Keep giving Microsoft large quantities of cash, and they'll let you keep playing music.
Any questions?
So.. it has come to this
This comment should in no way be taken as an overall endorsement of an Apple-boner worldview but, let's face it, there is something fundamental about music and people that the Jobsian camp "gets" that the Redmonites don't.
One significant reason why the iPod -- crippled as it is under its own DRM and Applephilic burdens -- was/is such a success is because it makes the experience of selecting and playing back popular music comparatively easy, even for people with shrunken frontal lobes and/or other severe cognitive challenges (retardation, ADHDADDADHD, neoconservatism, etc.). Even my grandma knows how to rip CDs into her library and stick them on her iPod.
The relative transparency of the process means that my grandma doesn't have to call a geek to help her. This means the obstacles between her and what she wants to listen to are minimal. Basically, it's easy. The rights management is sufficiently flexible that she doesn't know or care that it is there.
This Microsoft DRM scheme, in contrast, sounds very visible.
No matter how smoothly or non-smoothly it works, the visibility in and of itself will intimidate/frustrate/frighten much of the herd. Anything that requires an explanation -- even a simple one -- cuts scads off of the numbers of potential customers.
The perception of simplicity sells Apple products, for good or for ill. Until Microsoft understands this, they'll be playing catch up forever.
Marketshare does not equal mindshare. Evidently.
These stories are free but worth money.
Stop downloading pr0n and you won't have to worry about refreshing your hard drive every six months. I have been going on two years on my laptop without any issues. No viruses, no spyware. I do regular MS updates, update my virus protection program, my spam blocker, and play games and do work w/o any problems.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
All very good reasons to use an OSS OS.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I think you're buying the stereotypes a bit too much there.
I shall use myself as a textbook example. I'm a reasonably informed guy when it comes to IT. I write software for a living, build my own PCs, and all that jazz.
I run a Windows XP machine by choice. The disadvantages of Linux currently outweigh the advantages for me. (If you're curious: at the time I bought the machine, several of the hardware components didn't have good Linux support, and while they now do, I don't see enough benefit to mess around with a working configuration just go get a dual-boot system set up. My next machine will probably be dual-boot from the start, but that's a different question.)
Now, I use Firefox as my web browser, and Thunderbird for my e-mail. I have seen enough damage done to various people by IE and Outlook Express to last a lifetime, and have no desire to become the next casualty. I use OpenOffice for basic word processing and spreadsheet stuff. That's not because it's better than MS Office -- IMNSHO, it's not, by a long shot -- but simply because I don't want to pay for MS Office and as a matter of principle I won't rip it illegally.
For media, however, my needs are limited. Up to this point, WMP has met them just fine. Moreover, unlike the browser or office apps markets, there doesn't seem to be a well-established, tried-and-tested, free-as-in-sensible leading alternative for media jobs. For a long time the Serious Alternative(TM) was Real Player, which was even worse. I've tried a few free alternatives to Media Player, and I've yet to find one that lasted more than an hour, due to stupid UI flaws, bugs, and other rubbish that life is too short to tolerate.
This may well be the thing that convinces me to give alternative players another look. I strongly disagree with the ideas behind DRM, on both ethical and practical grounds. I have downloaded a grand total of one DRM'd song in my life, and that was just an experiment to see how the system worked. There is no way I will ever pay lots of money to download lots of songs if I can't do reasonable and legal things with them.
But please don't assume that because I use WMP, I'm a stoopid luser. I'm simply bored of trying to find more open alternatives, when WMP has (to this point) met my limited needs, and the alternatives I've tried have all been crap. To borrow an expression, media software has yet to find its Firefox.
(If you think you have found a genuinely good media application, that can do things like ripping/burning CDs, converting video formats so I can import data from my PVR and digital camcorder, building DVD menus and burning DVD-Rs, then please suggest it here. Bonus points are available if it's not tied to one specific platform.)
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I don't know which is funnier: your comment or the fact it was moderated informative.
Developers: We can use your help.
No one does eat spinach. Furthermore, any unwashed, uncooked food product is a bacteria risk. This story was only popular because of the news teasers all day long: "What COMMON VEGETABLE can send YOU to the HOSPITAL? Find out on the News at 11!"
If they had just said "wash your greens well before you eat them" everyone would have gone "Duh, of course!"
But let me ask everyone a question: AFAIK, there are only two DRM technologies in common use by commercial content distributors: FairPlay and PlaysForSure.
So, aside from the standard /. bias that Apple==Good and Microsoft==Evil, ranting against WMP and people who use it is, as far as I'm concerned, a case of "the pot calling the kettle black."
As far as I'm concerned, I'm perfectly willing to pay US$0.5 to maybe as high as US$0.75 per song to download unprotected .mp3, as long as they are of consistent quality and base volume. The only people are share my music with are immediate family and friends, and this will occur electronically or via physical media. Further, I'd be willing to pay that same amount for every .mp3 I already have in my collection that did not come from a retail CD I currently own.
But there is no f*cking way I'm paying premium prices for entertainment material that limits my ability for enjoyment. Yes, US$1 is PREMIUM PRICING considering I can buy a 12-song CD for US$15 and not only have a physical item of value, but am not physically restricted in how I enjoy the material.--- A man with a briefcase can steal more money, than any man with a gun. [Don Henley]
Way to prove the point of why a ton of people still use WMP. That soup of jargon is why iTunes is so hugely popular.
It's not a moot issue because there are scores of PC users who wouldn't know how else to rip a CD.
As we say in the IT world when dealing with others outside of our scope of support...
Not.
My.
Problem.
Sure it is heartless, but the rest of the world is not our responsibility.
Using "free" products that are known to screw you over won't be getting sympathy from many of us who use alternatives. If you don't know or haven't bothered to learn... Then suffering is always the best education.
(Damn... I'm being extra heartless this morning.)
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
From TFA, on restoring licenses:
"If you obtained the file from an online store, contact the store to find out if it offers media usage rights (license) restoration (some stores refer to this procedure as computer activation, computer authorization, or license synchronization)."
I'm not versed in iTunes specs, but could this be one (of many) avenues to make it more difficult to use iTMS? Or at least cause FUD against Apple?
Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but given M$'s past behavior...and they are releasing their own version of an iPod soon... hmmm....
Who put this thing together? Me, that's who.
When an idiot asks you what format to use, just say "mp3" and be done with it, because like it or not, it's the most well supported format for audio right now, and they're least likely to have problems with it. If you must say anything else, tell them that they absolutely must not use WMA, or else Microsoft will know all the pirated software and MP3s they have, and Bill Gates will personally eat their children. Yeah, I know using WMA doesn't tell Microsoft what you've pirated, but idiots won't understand real reasons.