Ding Dong: Another DRM Is Dead... And With It All The Files You Thought You Bought
from the how-it-works dept
Every few months, it seems, we hear of another online content store dying or changing... and with it, out goes all the content that people thought they were "legitimately" buying, because the connected DRM server goes dead. It makes you wonder why anyone buys any DRM'd content at all, knowing that in a flash, it might all go away. The latest is that the online music service Rhapsody is officially turning off the lights on its "RAX" DRM, such that anyone who has RAX files had better go through the painstaking process of "converting" all those files ASAP, or they're all gone:Greetings! This is another reminder to convert RAX music files NOW to avoid losing any of your music. We want to make sure you can continue to enjoy all your music for as long as you please.I like how Rhapsody pretends that backing up all these songs to CDs, then re-ripping them back to your computer, is just "a small step."
On November 7th, 2011 Rhapsody/RealNetworks will no longer support certain music files you purchased before July 2008. These songs will continue to play after November 7th unless you change to a new computer or substantially update your current computer. However, we strongly recommend you back up these RAX tracks to audio CD to ensure you can continue to enjoy your music.
Once you take this small step, you can continue to play these tracks on your audio CD or rip them to any format you desire and play them on your PC.
Please don't delay - after we shut off support for RAX files, you will not be able to play them if you move to a new computer or upgrade your operating system.
In the meantime, those who continue to insist that music is "licensed" and not "bought," can you explain what happened here? If the music was truly "licensed," why can't Rhapsody just provide non-DRM'd versions of the same music? Once again, all this really does is make you wonder why anyone "buys" any DRM'd product.
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Filed Under: drm, rhapsody
Companies: realnetworks
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Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
New media formats came into existence.
Cassette tapes failed.
CD's got scratched.
Each of these made you repurchase your music.
Then digital happened ...
No more new formats.
No more failures.
No more reselling you the same crap.
I think DRM is the new way to get you to repurchase the same music again.
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Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
I've barely heard anything about Blu-Ray or the Ultraviolet format that was good.
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Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
They want people to pay again and again for the same material. This is blatantly obvious with things like movie formats - they release them over and over in various versions and then a new format is made and they do it all over again.
Now of course it's moving to online streaming... where you'll be made to pay for every view eventually if it's not there yet, which is a wet dream come true for the content owners. And it's all going to have DRM to make sure you don't store a copy and rewatch it without paying. Unless, of course, we decide to get off the nasty merry-go-round and demand some real change.
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Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
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Re: Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
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Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
Now cough up $.99 if you want to listen to the song by the same name that you bought on LP, then 8-track, then cassette, then CD.
Some days my irony meter goes to eleven.
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Re: Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
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Re: Re: Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
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Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
I've noticed that there's a new scheme at play with movies, too. You can't just buy a movie on Blu-Ray or DVD anymore. Now you have to buy them in "Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Packs!"
Basically, they put two copies of the movie into one box and charge you twice as much for them, even though they know that for any given customer, one of those copies is absolutely useless. If you have a Blu-Ray player, you're never going to use the DVD copy, and if you have a DVD player, you can't use the Blu-Ray copy. But if you want the movie (without pirating it, of course), you have to buy both at twice the price.
Fantastic.
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Re: Re: Reinventing the glory days of past resale profits ...
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Some questions
Q: Does Rhapsody provide a set of instructions on how to covert the music from their RAX DRM format?
It does appear that Rhapsody is encouraging (inducing?) people to convert the music to "any format [they] desire and play them on [their] PC" and that this is not considered a violation of the TOS.
Q2: Would this be the case prior to their decision to shut off the users ability to play "their" music?
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Re: Some questions
But I guess that doesn't fit your agenda.
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Re: Re: Some questions
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Now, any chance of removing DRM from movie files as well so that I can start buying those?
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Does your high school know you use their computers for this?
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Separately, hasn't anyone created a virtual CD burner yet? It seems like an obvious thing to do, but I've never come across one.
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Yes, but it's generally in the file menu under something along the lines of "save as .iso"
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Create the image. Don't burn it. Mount it.
Dunno how it would work in other environments though.
The process of creating all of those CD's (image file or physical disk) would still likely be an annoying and time consuming manual process though.
DRM probably means no 3rd party automation.
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Re: Re:
this sounds important
please clarify
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Re:
Second of all, it is a bigger deal than you let on. It is a cautionary tale of not relying on sources that sell you a product requiring constant DRM. You might find the process trivial, but the fact that you even have to go through those steps is a joke.
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Not sure what the point would be, but nonetheless...
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 1st, 2011 @ 10:07am
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Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 1st, 2011 @ 10:07am
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Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 1st, 2011 @ 10:07am
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Sayz u? Must b tru then!
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Yeah, APPLE.
I stopped buying from iTunes years ago (and any Apple products since my ancient iPod) because of this...are they still charging to get un-DRM'd tracks you already bought?
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Re: iTunes DRM
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Re: Re: iTunes DRM
Did they discontinue this or not?
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You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
I too wonder why anyone would buy DRM files rather than a "real" CD, but that's a separate argument.
This sounds like giving decent warning, for a corporaton. Usually they just take your money and fly by night, or if grow large and gain monopoly power, stay put and taunt you all day.
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Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
Who said absolute lock? It's just an annoying step in the process, a step that should not have to exist.
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Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
Why do I buy digital music instead of CDs? So I don't have to pay for all the crap tracks that I don't like. I can buy (for cheaper) song ala carte. It was "nice" of Rhapsody to warn their customers. Basically, they are saying, "unless you move it quick, we're going to crap in your cereal bowl."
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Re: Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
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Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
As you say, monopolies are horrendous, competition works to check and reduce the power someone might have. So why is it you seem to agree with copyrights and patents? Those are nothing but government enforced monopolies. No amount of anti-trust action will stop them because the government was the one that gave the monopoly power in the first place.
As to the rest of your comment. No one is claiming that DRM is an absolute lock. Indeed, Rhapsody is explaining just how you can "crack" their DRM. But that involves work that would not be necessary if they simply gave out DRM free files to begin with. They put in extra time, effort and money to build DRM into it and run the servers, and are now asking their customers to put time, effort and money so that they can continue to listen to what they already paid for. It's a lot of waste.
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Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
This is a case where downloading those albums from a torrent would be absolutely justified.
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Re: Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
And the RIAA wins because thats "billions" more dollars going to pirates they can complain about.
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Re: Re: Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
As if they won't do that regardless of reality?
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Re: You guys say all DRM is easily cracked. Now it's an absolute lock?
Another day, another logical argument goes straight over OOTB's head.
Don't worry dear, one day you'll get it. At least you're trying, unlike some people here.
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end of licence?
Also, since breaking DRM is against the law aren't they promoting illegal activity? Burning to CD and reripping sounds very much like you're circumventing a technological measure to me.
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Re: end of licence?
> aren't they promoting illegal activity?
Since they're the 'owner' of the DRM, they're allowed to give permission to others to circumvent their own security if they want to.
Otherwise it would be like saying that once a homeowner puts a lock on their front door, they can never give anyone else a key (or permission to break a window to get in, if need be).
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Re: Re: end of licence?
The problem I see is that when the 'average joe' sees that DRM is easily circumvented (as per Rhapsody's instructions), why wouldn't (s)he assume that, if it is legal to circumvent Rhapsody's DRM, that it is then 'legal' to circumvent all DRM?
After all, if it's OK with this company, why would it not be OK with other companies?
Flawed logic: yes, but....
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Re: Re: end of licence?
Surely the "right" thing to do would be to tell each user that their obsolete files were now available in a personal area as MP3 files instead.
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We're recalling all jars and bottles - they will no longer be supported. Please go to your kitchen and transfer every last condiment, beverage and anything else you have into some other type of container. It's a no-brainer and no loss for anyone. You have two weeks.
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How about they provide me with them already converted?
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Apart from the time lost for conversion and the quality loss by yet another encoding step you mean?
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If so, then their DRM is that much more insidious.
If not, it is just(and I use the term loosely), an inconvenience.
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Just give the users their own keys.
They should simply distribute something that decrypts these files and gets rid of the DRM. The DRM should be what "expires" rather than the content.
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yeah...
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111027/15411816543/rep-blackburn-co-sponsor-e-paras ite-explains-why-regulating-internet-is-terrible.shtml
The front page only lists the latest posts. You need to hit the "More Stories" link at the bottom of the page to get more.
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Even though your snowflake betrays you.
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Nothing, nothing at all, since you have been conditioned to repurchasing your music every few years, when the latest and greatest format is announced (LP>8-track>cassette>CD>MP3>????).
Their problem is that digital=????.
They're at a dead end, and are panicking.
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If that is NOT a small step you should back away from the computer and do something else with your life because technology is too complicated for you.
On the other hand I would agree that the need to do this is an annoyance, the size of which depends on how much you need to convert.
Fish who got burned when musicmatch went away and who used just this process to recover.
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Any inconvenience you cause your paying customers is something that should be avoided like the plague. They'll stop trusting you and go elsewhere with their money.
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In that case I've got a few errands for you to run.
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Manual drudgery is unbecoming any computing platform.
> from the computer and do something else with your
> life because technology is too complicated for you.
It's not a small step done 100 times.
ANY stupid little thing you are forced to do 100 times is unacceptable drudgery and busy work.
Automating stupid nonsense like this is exactly what computers are supposed to do.
This is why I tend to avoid the platforms that a lot of other people like to use. They mistake a pretty graphic that requires a lot of manual futzing for "user friendly".
When you are doing something 22 or 100+ at a time, a crude non-automated process just doesn't cut it really.
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Doesn't appear to be true..
Section 103 (17 U.S.C Sec. 1201(a)(1)) of the DMCA states:
No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
....
(A) to 「circumvent a technological measure」 means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and
(B) a technological measure 「effectively controls access to a work」 if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.
This company doesn't actually own the copyright - true? It does specifically state, "without the authority of the copyright owner".
The recording companies would hold those - that being the case, they do not have the authority to allow circumvention of DRM. At least from the way I read that law.
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Otherwise it would be like saying that once a homeowner puts a lock on their front door, they can never give anyone else a key (or permission to break a window to get in, if need be).
If in fact *only* the copyright owner was allowed to make a copy of the key - well, you as the homeowner wouldn't actually own the copyright - the company who made the lock would...
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The problem with illegally downloading songs is that it proves there is a demand for the content and just provides more fuel for their arguments in favor of stronger copywrite enforcement.
If you want change to happen organize a world-wide boycott and hit them where it hurts - in their wallet. It would have to be well publicized so they know why their music isn't selling.
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If you want change to happen organize a world-wide boycott and hit them where it hurts - in their wallet. It would have to be well publicized so they know why their music isn't selling.
Here's the thing - the industry is quick to blame any drop on their sales to piracy. As it stands we're reeling from double recessions, somehow the industry is making more money than ever, and yet they will continue to blame consumers for "lost sales". If we're going to to get laws that routinely punish innocent people, and we're all going to get penalised, don't be surprised if some people feel that they have to deserve it first.
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I, for one, am not pissed off at all at artists.
I am however, pissed of as hell at the middlemen who presume to represent them.
If you can't see the difference, I would presume that are, in fact, one of the middlemen.
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If you can't see the difference, I would presume that you are, in fact, one of the middlemen.
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Rhapsody is toast
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RE Not Buying
"No problem, We'll just call our government friends we have on the payroll and change a law or two then make MORE money doing less"
"no wonder you're the Boss"
(Best part is, we make the Artist's pay for all the payola, Double plus good for us)
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Time to go all Sharia on their asses!
Of course, I am not a Sharia lawyer, but if my interpretation is correct, then let the punishments fit the crimes. The scimitar is being honed at this moment.
Of course, I am also not a lawyer of any type, which leaves me the freedom to continue hating them all.
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Only One DRM'd Product...
I buy games on Steam, does that count?
It's more convenient to have Steam organize my games for me and let me choose which I want installed, than to have to keep up with various DVDs/CDs and find them all whenever I want to play something.
This, of course, is ADDED value, but if Steam were to go down in flames at some point, I would lose a substantial amount of my games. :(
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Re: Only One DRM'd Product...
Other sorts of creative works have far more lasting power on the order of decades, centuries, and even millenia.
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Re: Re: Only One DRM'd Product...
Oh, wait...
http://www.gog.com/
http://www.nintendo.com/wii/online/virtualconsole/
http://www.retro gamer.net/
http://scummvm.org/
...and so on.
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Just Say No
DRM: just say no.
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I don't know. It seems they are giving people a way to convert their files to almost any format without issue. Seems to be a no-brainer and no loss for anyone.
We're recalling all jars and bottles - they will no longer be supported. Please go to your kitchen and transfer every last condiment, beverage and anything else you have into some other type of container. It's a no-brainer and no loss for anyone. You have two weeks.
Great analogy! I love it!
Sorry for the repost.
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Publishers still use this??
-SL Clark
Publisher, Heart Press
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Are they really telling people to convert?
I don't know much about Rhapsody so I may be talking out of my arse if they aren't using lossy compression, but have you heard a double-encoded MP3?
*rips ears off*
"Oh Hello, We notice you leased some music. Sorry, though, we've decided not to provide you with access anymore."
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RN
Paperwork is in place
Seeking protection from Creditors: CHECK
Bankruptcy filing documents: CHECK
In a small way it's nice they warned people to convert files now before everything is turned off, since once real networks is in administration its too late.
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