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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.

5 of 536 comments (clear)

  1. More reasons to get Vista, hey! by TheShadowHawk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even tighter DRM? Wow... tell me again why I should install Vista?

    --
    Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
  2. I want more MS by MECC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  3. Re:Ahem... by EVil+Lawyer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's not a moot issue because there are scores of PC users who wouldn't know how else to rip a CD. No one has to eat spinach, but when there was an e. coli outbreak linked to spinach, it was still newsworthy.

    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.

  4. it's obvious by oohshiny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft is trying to kill DRM.

  5. Thank God by Mateo_LeFou · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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