Get Your DRM-Free Music From Warner While You Can, It Won't Last For Long
from the you-might-want-to-read-those-deals-you-sign. dept
Back in April, MP3.com founder Michael Robertson unveiled his latest startup, dubbed AnywhereCD, which offered DRM-free downloads of complete albums. There was just one tiny problem: Warner Music, the label whose music AnywhereCD licensed, claimed that it never gave Robertson permission to do this. At the time, it was pretty unclear how the two parties had such a divergent view of their agreement, but given Robertson's penchant for getting publicity, the whole story wasn't at all out of the ordinary for him. The two sides have now come to an agreement, and it seems as though the two sides genuinely disagreed about what exactly they had agreed to. As such, they're come to a bizarre compromise whereby AnywhereCD will be allowed to continue selling DRM-free albums, but only through September. It still seems unbelievable that there was such confusion over the initial deal, although good entertainment lawyers are stretched pretty thin these days, so maybe Warner had the second string in that day. Still, maybe something good can come out of it if Warner sees that DRM-free sales don't cause the sky to fall.
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Mark Bowness
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Aw hell...
DRM only hinders the 'honest' customer anyway-- people that illegally download don't have to worry about DRM. I, myself, don't care if they never start selling music DRM-free. ;)
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Re: Aw hell...
The funny thing here is that selling DRM-free music really would be beneficial for everyone. I personally will never pay a cent for a download if I do not have complete control over how I can use it. I can easily find other places to grab the song for free, so why do I want to waste my time and money and something that's broken to begin with? Then, as Joe said, I can easily buy the physical cd and rip it to my computer - without any DRM. Of course, going to the store costs me time and gas, and forces me to by a cd full of tracks that suck when I only wanted 2 or 3, so downloading those 2 or 3 songs elsewhere is just easier. As it stands now, the recording industry is just not getting any of my money.
Message to the Recording Industry: I have money here that I'm ready to hand over to you if you can supply me with the product I want - the same product I can get elsewhere for free. Why does it seem that you don't have any interest in coming to get my money?
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Re: Aw hell...
They Do stick DRM on CD's, i have a few and had to use TuneBite to use the files on my MP3 player as the ripping program that was on the CD only allowed the files on the PC its ripped to, no external thingers.
And yeah, DRm just stuffs up the average joe. If you want to share a file on whatever, be it p2p or file servers, the people who want to do it will be the people who have the means to strip DRM from files.
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Re: Re: Aw hell...
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Why do I need the CD??
I'd like to ditch the CD and just get the MP3s. Maybe a little cheaper too, I don't see the point of paying for the CD and shipping costs when I only want the MP3s.
So what's the problem, I don't mind if you stick a transaction number in the MP3 track. But it has to play on all of my MP3 players (and all future mp3 players too, NO BACKSIES!).
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Re: Why do I need the CD??
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this is a test
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Re: this is a test
As it is, with the AnywhereCD model, you have to buy the entire CD. So, I am still being forced to buy songs I don't like/want-- except when I do it with a CD, I get a booklet and some art-- but with AnywhereCD, I just get wasted money.
If an apple farmer *forced* people to buy 6 bad apples with every one good one, he'd go out of business, and rightfully so.
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Re: Re: this is a test
Not if he had political pull! :-P
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MP3 too lossy
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Re: MP3 too lossy
Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing to do with Magnatune or any of their artists; I just love their business model.
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Read this. RIAA lied to Congress
one long url so copy paste to reform it correctly.
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