Electronic Music 411 - Viral DRM on Zune - Zune, Microsoft, RIAA, DRM

EM411.com
Electronic Music Production, MP3's, Live Shows, Blogs and Community

Share your music and get feedback.

mrpanda's emID

Orlando, Florida, USA

Message me

View my emID

Viral DRM on Zune

StoreTags: Zune, Microsoft, RIAA, DRM

Author: mrpanda on September 17 2006

Viewed 4875 times. 5 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.

People who enjoyed reading this: emulsion, airliner, soft, yghartsyrt, Artsigreg

--> Some of you might have already happened upon this by way of Slashdot, but it's become apparent recently that Microsoft's new Zune media player will force viral DRM onto every song wirelessly shared from it so that the song can be played only 3 times or for no longer than 3 days. If you're Madonna, this is probably great, but if you're an unknown, especially one like myself who releases their music with creative commons or in some other unrestricted form, this is very over the line.

Although I'm not certain about this, there's also a supposed "feature" that will let you buy the songs shared from other users. I don't want Bill Gates making money off my music that was never meant to be sold in the first place, if that's how the said feature operates.

Personally, I hope this results in a class action lawsuit and a big blow to Microsoft's ego.

link
link

edit: new link link with a somewhat weak, imho, explaination of how Zune's 3plays/3days wrapper isn't really DRM. (thanks Raaphorst)

Cesar Menendez said: "If you have a song - say that you got “free and clear” - Zune to Zune Sharing won’t apply any DRM to that song. The 3-day/3-play limitation is built into the device, and it only applies on the Zune device: when you receive a song in your Inbox, the file remains unchanged. After 3 plays or 3 days, you can no longer play the song; however, you can still see a listing of the songs with the associated metadata."

Sounds like DRM to me, if the user who has the file shared to them has no other way to access the file. Say for example, I didn't have a server to store files on, but all my music was still Creative Commons licensed and shared via hardcopies I gave to friends. It makes the whole sharing feature completely redundant. For all it's worth, you may as well buy an ipod instead cause the sharing feature is obviously not doing you any real favors.

Digg it | Delicious

Read mrpanda's other blogs.mrpanda's Recent Blogs

Broken PC leads to interesting things (Tags: experimentation, lofi, organic)

Down In June (Tags: Cover Bands, Death In June, Neofolk)

Doing the band thing (Tags: bands, collaboration)

National Archive Footage (Tags: video, vj, visuals)

for the damaged right eye (Tags: video)

Comments

1 | 2 | 3

09/17/06 + sprouts

complete shit.

this is why we should all hate microsoft

Recent blogs: Sprouts needs a place to stay in NYC, diy monome for the masses, Guide to electronic music

09/17/06 + Fredo

ick. so it's a brown brick with an evil mind. poo......

Recent blogs: hit hard, Ghost Clusters..., My Glock!!!

09/17/06 + celibacyclub

i think this kind of stuff is why we all do hate microsoft.

Recent blogs: em411 vimeo group, cc's monome, quixit in irc soon

09/17/06 + Raaphorst

same as Apple/iTunes/iPod which puts DRM in it as well.

Recent blogs: okidoki, Flick Radio, Motel De Moka

09/17/06 + airliner

i'm not sure, but i think the selling feature will only apply to songs that microsoft has in their music store. so if you to share say, a netlabel track with someone, ms isn't going to have any way of charging them for it.

man, this zune thing is retarded though. did you guys hear that it isn't even going to work with microsoft's own "plays for sure" DRM brand that they spent so much time hyping? talk about clueless.

Recent blogs: Hjalti Album, plus Split EP, Played Out, Tonight's the night.

09/17/06 + Raaphorst

DRM sucks big time, both Apple and MS got it all wrong. DRM doesn't talk any customer serious, so...

Recent blogs: okidoki, Flick Radio, Motel De Moka

09/17/06 + Fredo

Raaphorst said: "same as Apple/iTunes/iPod which puts DRM in it as well."

Apple iTunes does not put DRM on content that you have ripped friomyour own cd, or that somebody gave to you. Only on files you purchase from iTunes Music Store.

Recent blogs: hit hard, Ghost Clusters..., My Glock!!!

09/17/06 + crazyshadow

Another attack from the DRM hell creature hate them and we must take them down and counter this evil fiend that is DRMwe pay for music it sshould stay in our right to use it in the player we whant and to make copy for personal use without being repress ou penilise

Recent blogs: need to find a recording of a radio show, back to school for me, just release a new virb exclusif album

edited: Sep 17 2006 + soft

i have this secret technique that makes the zune drm useless!

Recent blogs: stranded in berlin!!, STFU arrangements Heidelberg, i joined the darkside

09/17/06 + mrpanda

soft said: "i have this secret technique that makes the zune drm useless!"

Really? tell us more.

Recent blogs: Broken PC leads to interesting things, Down In June, Doing the band thing

09/17/06 + rrooyyccee

ack
we used to have to copy songs from records onto tapes. and then the tapes would wear out after a year or so.
drm is a complete waste of time.
mp3s sound like crap. there is no way they are worth 99 cents.

Recent blogs: i have altered the official instrument of em411.com, the problem with computers, nice discussion on sound design

09/17/06 + celibacyclub

i heard something about some services offering uncompressed files as well.

google adds is telling me about 'remove DRM from music' at link

Recent blogs: em411 vimeo group, cc's monome, quixit in irc soon

09/18/06 + tonearm

I hope the zune gets fucking HACKED.

Recent blogs: I got my synths back, Sandwiches!, 3 Electro-acoustic tonepoems

09/18/06 + Raaphorst

Fredo said: "

Raaphorst said: "same as Apple/iTunes/iPod which puts DRM in it as well."

Apple iTunes does not put DRM on content that you have ripped friomyour own cd, or that somebody gave to you. Only on files you purchase from iTunes Music Store."

Only if you compress to mp3, if you're using AAC, DRM is included.

Apple's Copy Protection Isn't Just Bad For Consumers, It's Bad For Business

Recent blogs: okidoki, Flick Radio, Motel De Moka

09/18/06 + soft

mrpanda said: "

soft said: "i have this secret technique that makes the zune drm useless!"

Really? tell us more."

DONT BUY A ZUNE!
;)

Recent blogs: stranded in berlin!!, STFU arrangements Heidelberg, i joined the darkside

1 | 2 | 3

You must be a member to reply or post. signup or login