Slashdot Mirror
Wal-Mart Ends DRM Support
An anonymous reader writes "So, you thought you did well to support the fledgling music industry by purchasing your tracks legally from the Wal-Mart store? Well, forget about moving these tracks to a new PC! Since they started selling DRM-free tracks last year, there's no money to be made in maintaining the DRM support systems, and in fact, support is being shut down. Make sure you circumvent the restrictions by burning the tracks to an old-fashioned CD before Wal-mart 'will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com.' Support ends October 9th."
I only bumped into FairPlay two times.
The first is when I tried to move a DRM'ed AAC file to an old Win98SE laptop (so I simply went and got the same tune as an MP3 file from P2P, since I had already paid for the tune).
The second is when I tried to play a rented movie from another computer. Turns out, you can't watch the movie from another computer, it has to be on the one you rented the movie from (even if the other computer is in your list of 5 allowed computers). I could have moved the movie to my AppleTV or my iPod touch, but I needed to watch it on my laptop. It's annoying that rented movies don't have the same limitations as purchased ones.
...why we have a problem with their newest DRM model.
(Yes, I'm aware they claim they'll release a patch before they turn off the servers, but if they go bankrupt tomorrow and can't PAY anyone to develop said patch, then what?)
Why isn't there a tracker page at Defective By Design for how many of these DRM services have died? Google's video, Yahoo's music service, MSN Music, MTV, MLB.tv, CSS, etc?
Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
While I agree that fairplay is likely to be around for a fair while yet, it isn't all that structurally different from the DRM used in this case. Subscription service WMDRM phones home frequently, so a shutdown of the activation servers will actively hose you within 30 days or so; but ordinary "purchased" WMDRM tracks are playable for the life of activated machines, as with fairplay. If fairplay activation servers went down, you'd be exactly as hosed as the people in TFA(which is to say, as soon as you need to activate a new device).
You mean the internet exists outside the US? :p
I don't know if its a coincidence or not, but I had some well connected friends at Yahoo relay my message of an impending class action lawsuit in light of them shutting down their drm servers. Shortly there after they announced that you could get the same tracks from other services with out drm for free. Sadly, I never bought anything from walmart nor do I know anyone there. But if you have been burned I suggest you look into it. It won't end up helping you recoup many losses, but I think a successful class action lawsuit against drm would cause other potential users of it very weary. I used to be one of the biggest defenders of DRM'd music here on slashdot. Then yahoo schooled me in its stupidity. I'm simply not going to use anything that has DRM on it ( exception made for dvd's as they are easily converted to a drm less format).
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Nonetheless, it's always a good idea to backup your favorite music, regardless of the format in which it was purchased.
No it's not.
Not in this case.
For you see, when he went to re-load the backed up music it would re-contact the Walmart DRM server looking for authorization... A server which no longer exists.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Unless you have some sort of analog computer of which I am unaware, that waveform exists in memory as a digital representation. There would only be analog involved if, for some reason, you couldn't decode the WMA and had to play it back through the line-out of your sound card to another recording device.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
It's not rocket science. It's only audio, and it's very easy to work with.
There are plenty of ways to backup that don't involve DRM, but it really won't matter until there is a mass of people who want to remove the DRM from their purchased music. Of course, if there was a mass of people using Wal-Mart's music service they wouldn't have shut it down in the first place.
ENDUT! HOCH HECH!
So even though it doesn't make "sense", they had no idea what the providence of your diapers were; you could have bought them stolen for 20 cents on the dollar.
But, again, I was making an exchange and not getting a refund. I was trading them something worth $X for something worth $(X-0.07). Even if I'd stolen the original package, they would be no worse off after the swap. It was a lot of inconvenience for no net difference.
How hard was it to show them a driver's license, anyway?
To show them? Not hard at all. To allow them to record the information like they wanted to do? That was more than I could accept.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
This isn't really that "forgiving" of an option. You're still getting screwed, because when you go to make an MP3 of your "backed up" tracks off of that Audio CD, you're going to be getting an audibly lower quality file for your troubles.
The music lost quality the first time it was compressed into the WMA format. Burning it to a CD doesn't further reduce the audio quality, but it doesn't undo the compression artifacts either. That second compression will further degrade your music.
Thanks WalMart! If this isn't already illegal, it must become so. I'm not voting for anyone who isn't going to do something about how badly consumers are being treated nowadays.