| StoreTags: Zune, Microsoft, RIAA, DRM
Author: mrpanda on September 17 2006 Viewed 5106 times. 5 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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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. | |
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09/18/06
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bsr
'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.'
he won't make money off it, if you share any audio with anyone else who has a zune it'll wrap some drm around it. this violates the cc licence, they could either rework the firmware to allow cc files to be shared without restriction or just ban cc files from being shared altogether. leaving it as it is just shows contempt for cc so if they do there's not a chance in hell i'll buy one.
edited: Sep 18 2006
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KidQuaalude
<edit> oops didnt see the confirmation from the microsoft guy
Microsofts Cesar Menendez said: "
"I made a song. I own it. How come, when I wirelessly send it to a girl I want to impress, the song has 3 days/3 plays?" Good question. There currently isn’t a way to sniff out what you are sending, so we wrap it all up in DRM. We can’t tell if you are sending a song from a known band or your own home recording so we default to the safety of encoding. And besides, she’ll come see you three days later. . .
"
way to launch your 'ipod beater' microsoft. they are going to have to sort this out quick-sharp before launch. i understand that they need drmif they are trying to compete with itunes,but surely they dont need to drm everything that goes on the bloody device. stupid, stupid, stupid.
edited: Sep 18 2006
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Fredo
Raaphorst said: " 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."
That is not true. I have shared many an aac file with friends with no drm problems whatsoever.
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"
That is not true. I have shared many of my files saved as aac with friends and have had absolutely no complaints. None whatsoever.
09/18/06
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bsr
yes, drm is an option for acc which can be turned off i believe (i don't have itunes installed so can't be sure).
09/18/06
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Zanf
KidQuaalude said: "way to launch your 'ipod beater' microsoft. they are going to have to sort this out quick-sharp before launch. i understand that they need drmif they are trying to compete with itunes,but surely they dont need to drm everything that goes on the bloody device. stupid, stupid, stupid."
It wont be long after that it gets cracked just like when itunes was as well
09/18/06
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mrpanda
bsr said: "'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.'
he won't make money off it, if you share any audio with anyone else who has a zune it'll wrap some drm around it. this violates the cc licence, they could either rework the firmware to allow cc files to be shared without restriction or just ban cc files from being shared altogether. leaving it as it is just shows contempt for cc so if they do there's not a chance in hell i'll buy one."
From what we know thus far, it's hard to tell. If the feature operates by allowing you to keep songs which have been shared to you, for example "Save this file for 99 cents" by removing the 3 days/3 plays restriction, but not the DRM itself, then that would be a way of profiting. That being said though, if that was true, they would be having the RIAA hassling them as well. Not much has been said with regards to Zune's online store or how it will operate.
Mr. Menendez claims that the Zune cannot detect whether the file is homemade or copyrighted, yet it can apparently tell enough about the file to find the artist, track name, and album to allow the user to buy it online. It seems as though Microsoft is just sidestepping the issue, and if it's not, then their programmers are even lazier than I first thought.
Regardless of whether they sell CC licensed songs or not, they are still in violation of the license just by adding DRM. If they do sell songs using the guise of "save" rather than "buy", then that's even worse. Seemingly nothing good can come of this.
09/18/06
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bsr
they have good programmers, that's not the problem, the problem is that they're so large that everything is decided by comittee, they have good technology that is either rushed to the market pretty much broken or watered down so much that it becomes virtually worthless.
'"Save this file for 99 cents" by removing the 3 days/3 plays restriction' - that can't be the way it'll work, they're not going to hold you to ransom for none copyrighted material, that's not the issue.
09/18/06
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mrpanda
bsr said: "they have good programmers, that's not the problem, the problem is that they're so large that everything is decided by comittee, they have good technology that is either rushed to the market pretty much broken or watered down so much that it becomes virtually worthless."
Microsoft doesn't have *bad* programmers, but it seems that their software and marketing as a whole is flawed. Rather than taking the time and money to actually plan and develop good software they, as you said, rush to get the product out and then spend the next 5 years "patching" all the massive holes they missed which should have been fixed long before release. That's like selling a car with no steering wheel in it and then acting like they're doing you a favor when they finally get around to putting it in.
bsr said: "'"Save this file for 99 cents" by removing the 3 days/3 plays restriction' - that can't be the way it'll work, they're not going to hold you to ransom for none copyrighted material, that's not the issue."
Right, I meant they could possibly claim they are charging for the transfer of the file and not the file itself, thus attempting to sidestep the licensing issue. As you said though, that would be a very stupid marketing decision if the sharing of files is going to be one of their major selling points.
09/18/06
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bsr
it was my understanding the files would be transferred direct from device to device wirelessly?
09/18/06
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yghartsyrt
this is rubish.
but hell yes. who gets a gun pointed at them buying this piece of crap.
and like every restriction it will be hacked.
promise
09/18/06
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mrpanda
bsr said: "it was my understanding the files would be transferred direct from device to device wirelessly?"
Indeed that is true, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Perhaps the DRM will have a half-life after it's playtime is up until it has a chance to connect to it's mothership.
Chances are i'm just being overly paranoid, but that being said, if someone had told me about the concept of DRM 10 years ago, I would have thought "they wouldn't stoop that low would they?", but they did. The possibility of them using Zune to hold files ransom is perhaps far fetched, but not impossible, and I certainly wouldn't put it past them to do so.
As several people have said though, it will definately be hacked, and then MS is going to have a real mess on their hands as they will have, instead of viral DRM, a viral p2p network which I assume will be very hard to keep track of once the cat is out of the bag.
09/19/06
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Raaphorst
@Fredo: maybe you are right. But I have read somewhere that AAC always holds DRM data, but I can't find that source.
I am working on some DRM project, so I might be able to learn more about this.
edited: Sep 20 2006
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Fredo
used to be a link of some kind.
09/20/06
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Raaphorst
story seems to be a little different:
link
09/20/06
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Raaphorst
cool, Fredo!
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