Microsoft to turn off PlaysForSure licensing servers

DRM anyone?

[thecoalman]

Ironic the name they used.

[blog.wired.com...]

Microsoft will be switching off its PlaysForSure licensing servers on August 31st 2008. What does this mean? It means that if you bought music from the MSN Music store, you're going to be shafted by your lackadaisical attitude to DRM.

This is why DRM is bad, I've been harping about this for years now as many others have. The music industry claims they need DRM to protect copyrights. That may be very well be one of the reasons but that is not the real reason IMO. For years one of the major parts of the music and video industries business model has been to sell you the same content over and over. I've multiple copies of albums myself, LP, cassette and finally CD. With the advent of digital music there is no longer a need for this. This FYI is one of the reasons the music industry is "losing" money. People like me no longer need to buy 2 extra cassettes because we wore them out.

Enter DRM, DRM will give music shelf life allowing them to continue with the decades old practice of selling you the same content numerous times.

[wheel]

If you're buying music across multiple media standards that's not the DRM's problem - it means you're getting old :).

[thecoalman]

If it weren't for the DRM you'd be able to play these files indefinitely until the format died. It's my understanding they are necoded using WMA so its not going away anytime soon. If need be you could shift them to another more compatible format but the DRM prevents that. :)