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Walmart Caves On DRM Removal

Posted by kdawson on from the just-kidding dept.

cmunic8r99 writes in with an email he received from walmart.com yesterday evening about the pending shutdown of their DRM services (which we discussed a while back). Walmart has reconsidered and won't be shutting off its DRM servers after all. They are still moving to an all-MP3 store, but won't break all the DRMed music its customers have already downloaded; this because of "feedback from the customers."

2 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Presumably... by yincrash · · Score: 5, Informative

    The problem with that is that Walmart probably has a contract with record labels that they made when they started the DRM service, and reoffering nonDRMed files would either require breaking the contract which risks a lawsuit, making a new contract with the record labels to allow them to reoffer DRM tracks for free (which would cost walmart tons because there is no way record labels would be interested in letting that happen w/o being paid a second time).

    the cheapest short term solution to keep their customers happy is just to leave the DRM servers up.

  2. Re:"feedback from the customers." by TheSpoom · · Score: 5, Informative

    You're missing the point.

    They might not want DRM, but they do want their previous purchased music to not suddenly become worthless.

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs