Wallmart kills off DRM servers

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Wallmart kills off DRM servers - and takes your music with it. (http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/26/walmart-shutting-dow.html)

ey suckers! Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they're repaying your honesty by taking away your music. Unless you go through a bunch of hoops (that you may never find out about, if you've changed email addresses or if you're not a very technical person), your music will no longer be playable after October 9th.

But don't worry, this will never ever happen to all those other DRM companies -- unlike little fly-by-night mom-and-pop operations like Wal*Mart, the DRM companies are rock-ribbed veterans of commerce and industry, sure to be here for a thousand years. So go on buying your Audible books, your iTunes DRM songs, your Zune media, your EA games... None of these companies will ever disappear, nor will the third-party DRM suppliers they use. They are as solid and permanent as Commodore, Atari, the Soviet Union, the American credit system and the Roman Empire.

Boy, the entertainment industry sure makes a good case for ripping them off, huh? Buy your media and risk having it confiscated by a DRM-server shutdown. Take it for free and keep it forever.

[I.S.T.]

This is why DRM sucks. The number one reason.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

This is why DRM sucks. The number one reason.

Yeah, you don't buy your music, you just borrow it (though they don't tell you that at the time). Nice way to punish your customers who give you their money, thus ensuring that they don't buy from you again and would rather go to other sources.

[vazel]

Wal-Mart of all companies... They'll probably be around for a thousand years and even they can't keep a smooth DRM operation. This proves that DRM hassles won't just happen when the company goes out of business.

[Skrying]

Yep, sorry to hear about this really. Though I can't say I would have ever recommended someone buy music from Wal-Mart. Just more of a reason to fully support Amazon and their wonderful DRM service. Oh, and just buy good ole CDs that can be ripped in any format you so desire!

[Davros]

This will happen to games. mark my words...

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Yeah, it's not like it's because they went out of business - they just decided they were not making enough profit, and so screw the customer. The same thing can and will happen with any digital format that uses DRM. If a company doesn't want to spend time and money keep a server up when it's still in business, how would they do it if they go bust? Why would they spend money removing DRM on something they don't make any money from and what to kill off anyway? DRM can't be trusted because the companies that implement it in this way can't be trusted - hardly surprising when they don't consider that you own the thing you bought anyway.

And it's exactly this kind of distrust and poor treatment of their customers that got these companies in the postion they are in now with regards to why customers don't want to pay them for music that's not in a format they want to own.

[Davros]

I would love a judge to order them to keep the drm server running for all eternity, it would send a nice message to all the other drm users

[Sxotty]

Which just goes to show you should buy DRM free music.

I am still wondering though about games, software etc.

What is microsoft going to do for instance when they quit activating WinXP? I might use it for 10 years still in my car for all I know.

[MulciberXP]

I'm not going to defend this. I definitely agree with everything posted. But does this really affect any of us? If my EA game doesn't work 10 years later because EA brings the DRM server down....won't there still be some futuristic torrent hive mind crystal quantum compute node or something out there I can get a cracked copy from? *shrug*

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I'm not going to defend this. I definitely agree with everything posted. But does this really affect any of us? If my EA game doesn't work 10 years later because EA brings the DRM server down....won't there still be some futuristic torrent hive mind crystal quantum compute node or something out there I can get a cracked copy from? *shrug*


Thing is, if you accept and implicitly support this kind of business model, then it's another step along the way to the media cartels owning all the product you buy, and controlling exactly what you do with it. So in ten years you'll have a more advanced game, but you'll have to pay every time you want to play it, or take it to a friends house, or play it with someone else, or lend it to a friend. And they'll do the same and worse with music, TV, and movies as soon as they can. Want to skip the ads on your PVR? More money please. Want to watch with a couple of friends? More money please. Want to listen to that music you bought last year? More money please. Want to rewind and watch some bit over again because you got a phone call? More money please.

Anything you can think to do with any kind of media that you take as normal usage now will be charged for and locked down with DRM up the wazoo, and punitive criminal laws bought from paid-for politicians.

Is that how you want these things to be in ten years time? I know I don't

[MulciberXP]

Thing is, if you accept and implicitly support this kind of business model, then it's another step along the way to the media cartels owning all the product you buy, and controlling exactly what you do with it. So in ten years you'll have a more advanced game, but you'll have to pay every time you want to play it, or take it to a friends house, or play it with someone else, or lend it to a friend. And they'll do the same and worse with music, TV, and movies as soon as they can. Want to skip the ads on your PVR? More money please. Want to watch with a couple of friends? More money please. Want to listen to that music you bought last year? More money please. Want to rewind and watch some bit over again because you got a phone call? More money please.

Anything you can think to do with any kind of media that you take as normal usage now will be charged for and locked down with DRM up the wazoo, and punitive criminal laws bought from paid-for politicians.

Is that how you want these things to be in ten years time? I know I don't


I don't, thats why I'm not a average schmuck consumer who carelessly bought in to such a system and is now reaping the 'benefits'.

But let me ask you this, if access to all media becomes cost prohibitive to the general populace in your dystopian future, then wouldn't the market react according?

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I don't, thats why I'm not a average schmuck consumer who carelessly bought in to such a system and is now reaping the 'benefits'.

But let me ask you this, if access to all media becomes cost prohibitive to the general populace in your dystopian future, then wouldn't the market react according?

If "the market" moves towards this kind of future as they've been trying to, then there's no reason to think they won't screw themselves over while screwing over their customers. You only have to look at the past few years to see what happens ie, cartels raise prices, implement DRM, fail to provide a wanted product in the wanted format, so users spend their money elsewhere (or not at all). The cartels response... raise prices, implement DRM to "combat piracy", and try to buy themselves special interest laws while persecuting and extorting people through the current legal system.

You may think the market will react appropriately, but the cartels control a lot of the market such as distribution or radio airplay, and have stunted where the market wants to go. Just look at what they did to digital distribution, web radio, etc.

Fact is, these aging accountants that run the cartels would still be screaming about piracy and the need for tax on blank media, MP3 players, internet accounts and PC hardware to fill their pockets even if nobody was buying their products at all. They'll be pocketing their multi-million dollar golden parachutes as they close the door on the industry they've run down, and they'll never once look in the mirror and wonder what they could have done differently.

[Sxotty]

I'm not going to defend this. I definitely agree with everything posted. But does this really affect any of us? If my EA game doesn't work 10 years later because EA brings the DRM server down....won't there still be some futuristic torrent hive mind crystal quantum compute node or something out there I can get a cracked copy from? *shrug*

It seems relying on piracy to make up for the inadequacy of companies is somewhat like saying piracy is a social good.

Seems like something the companies would disagree with to me.

[MulciberXP]

It seems relying on piracy to make up for the inadequacy of companies is somewhat like saying piracy is a social good.

Seems like something the companies would disagree with to me.

I guess I don't give a fig eh? :razz:

It's the prerogative of these content providers to deliver us with a product we want. They're always going to lose the anti-piracy race. If they willingly stop supporting a product we've already paid for there not exactly giving me any recourse. What case will they when I show my receipt?

[Richard]

I'm not going to defend this. I definitely agree with everything posted. But does this really affect any of us? If my EA game doesn't work 10 years later because EA brings the DRM server down....won't there still be some futuristic torrent hive mind crystal quantum compute node or something out there I can get a cracked copy from? *shrug*

If you're doing that in 10 years, what prevents you from doing that now? We already have a similar problem now with no-CD cracks. If a legit customer has to hunt down a crack to exercice his right to fair use what prevents him to click on the other link on the same page and download the entire game?

[MulciberXP]

If you're doing that in 10 years, what prevents you from doing that now? We already have a similar problem now with no-CD cracks. If a legit customer has to hunt down a crack to exercice his right to fair use what prevents him to click on the other link on the same page and download the entire game?

Nothing. Was this a rhetorical question?

[Richard]

Nothing. Was this a rhetorical question?

It was, although the understanding that if everyone pirates there won't be any new PC games would be a deterrent, I do believe publishers also need to understand that the types of DRM system they employ also have an influence on number of sales vis-à-vis pirated copies.