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."

Comments

A change.

[Sasayaki]

An interesting change in the wind. Suddenly, DRM is not just bad for consumers but good for re-sellers, where the cost of pissing off your clientele has to be weighed vs the cost of producing DRM-laden product, but aside from being utterly useless it actually harms the company directly by costing it money.

This is something that companies will listen to- and quickly. I suspect that this begins the downward spiral of heavy-handed DRM.

At least, I hope so...

Re:refund

[CastrTroy]

They can demand all they want. Doesn't mean they will get it. Also this is yet another reason why DRM is evil. There is no money in continuing to maintain the DRM servers once you stop selling music. Once whoever you buy from decides to stop support, you are out of luck. This is the third service that I have heard of shutting down. I'm sure more will come in the future. I'm not sure how long it will take for people to realize just how bad DRM is.

Re:refund

[Anonymous Coward]

So the moral of the story is that if you are willing to commit fraud you can get free cereal.

Vote of no confidence

[Skapare]

DRM cannot be trusted. DRM retailers cannot be trusted to keep up the support. This is why people should never buy DRM.

Why not replace the DRM'ed songs with non-DRM'ed?

[ktappe]

I don't understand why they don't do the obvious--replace all customers' DRM'ed songs with the equivalent non-DRM'ed copy. Customers have their same tracks, WallyWorld doesn't have to maintain their DRM servers.

Oh, wait....the RIAA won't get to double-dip customers if that happens. Now I see.

Re:refund

[poopdeville]

They can demand all they want. Doesn't mean they will get it.

You ignored my question in favor of going on a rant.

Obviously, they have the right to say what they want. I was asking if their demands are supported by law. Perhaps under an implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for purpose. Also, the TOS could have terms relating directly to the shutdown of the service.

Re:HAHAHA tag?

[rohan972]

Anyone with ideas on how to educate the general population [on DRM]?

Shut down the Wal-Mart DRM servers.

support isn't free

[Chewbacon]

This is just an expected downfall to DRM. Why sell something you'd have to continue supporting when you could just sell something with little or no support such as DRM-free music? It's for the better. Every time I hear those three letters I roll my eyes.