Technology News

[andrewducker]

Bad Technology News - Google Video is shutting down, which means that if you bought anything from them you'll lose it. Which is why I will never, ever buy DRM protected media - access is at the whim of the people that sold it to you, and if they go under you're fucked.

Good Technology News - Universal is going to try selling DRM free MP3s. Which I will happily pay for. I don't have a problem with paying for music - I just have a problem paying for music and then not being able to listen to it later. I hope that this catches on - I really do.

Comments

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing that when I do get given free DRMd things (iTunes free single of the week - I've got 131 of them) I convert them into an open format religiously!

(Incidentally, I prefer Ars's (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070812-google-selleth-then-taketh-away-proving-the-need-for-drm-circumvention.html) writeup).

[andrewducker]

Of course, if you're converting by copying to CD and thence to MP3 you're losing quality on the way...

And yes, Ars is completely correct.

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

While JHymn still worked, I used that to strip the drm (and apple atoms) - converting them losslessly to AAC. Now that it doesn't, I simply use Audio Hijack Pro to rip the stream as I listen to them for the first time. It works rather well, and satisfies my paranoia - although, I have to say that if Apple vanished overnight, the songs would keep playing forever on this computer and my iPods quite happily. It's not good, by any stretch of the imagination, but it could be a lot worse. And some of the free songs are actually quite nice!

(And I love your userpic, by the way...)