Was MTV's Rhapsody Decision Really Punishment For Microsoft Abandoning PlaysForSure?

from the playsforsure,-huh? dept

Fri, Aug 24th 2007 7:57am — Mike Masnick

We chalked up MTV's decision to drop Microsoft for RealNetworks in its online music store efforts to MTV's typical internet bumbling. However, there is another interesting possibility. MTV dumped Microsoft to punish the company for pulling the rug out from under them when it killed off "PlaysForSure" DRM. You may recall that Microsoft used to have its own DRM that it tried to get pushed as an industry standard. The company called it "PlaysForSure" in a bit of marketing hubris to try to make sure people felt comfortable with it. There was just one teensy problem. When Microsoft decided to get into the business of selling its own digital music players, it wouldn't support PlaysForSure, making the name that much more ironic. When your own digital music players won't play your own PlaysForSure DRM files, you have a problem. Not only did it screw over all the users who had been buying PlaysForSure files, it hurt all the different music stores, including MTV's, that had bet on PlaysForSure. So, with that in mind, it's no wonder that MTV decided to find someone else to partner with. Of course, you can still point out that MTV should have known better than to trust in Microsoft's DRM, but that's an issue for another day.

Filed Under: drm, playsforsure
Companies: microsoft, mtv

8 Comments

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Steve, 24 Aug 2007 @ 8:29am

Well, Rhaposdy still uses Microsoft's DRM, so I don't really see how that theory applies.

http://home.real.com/product/help/rhapv3_ts/en/Rhapsody_Service.htm
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GoblinJuice, 24 Aug 2007 @ 8:41am

Trusting DRM is like trusting a chic that'll spread on the first date. DON'T. =D
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Just Me, 24 Aug 2007 @ 10:53am

GoblinJuice
Oh GoblinJuice! Alwasy good for a laugh.
I think I might have to remember that one.

When will people learn? This whole DRM craze is no different then the rediculoulsy long serial keys used in software a decade ago - it does nothing to stop piracy and only serves to irritate the legitimate user.

Down With DRM!
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Just Me again, 24 Aug 2007 @ 10:54am

hmmm
seems I missed the spell check on that last post.
My apologies.
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Lucretious, 24 Aug 2007 @ 12:33pm

Realnetworks?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA......
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MusicShallBeFree, 24 Aug 2007 @ 2:30pm

Plays for sure
My music plays for sure everytime! I don't buy anything that has copy protection. I don't use anything that has copy protection. Art is not meant to be sold. Art is meant for the soul. Art wants to be free. It is for everyone. The rich, the poor, black and white, his and hers, ours and theirs, the intellects, the lunatics, the us and thems, the blessed and the cursed, the best and the worst.
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Anon, 24 Aug 2007 @ 3:02pm

re "Rhaposdy still uses Microsoft's DRM, so I don't really see how that theory applies"

that page is out of date. although rhapsody does work with some janus devices, it has since released its own "rhapsody dna" which is starting to be incorporated into a variety of devices; this started with the sansa rhapsody from sandisk, which tightly integrates with features of the rhapsody subscription service. iriver has released a rhapsody dna device and more are coming.

this doesn't appease the "all drm is evil" crowd, i realize, but it's a viable alternative to playsforsure in a world where drm is a requirement for a subscription service.
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tomka, 20 Jul 2008 @ 11:43pm

sf
megaupload search Hi! i found a lot of films here, of course if you are using rapidshare premium account http:// megauploadfiles.com
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