The unusual case of a lunchtime post...

[andrewducker]

This article amply demonstrates why I will never, ever buy DRMed music.  Microsoft is switching its authentication servers off.  Which means that any music you bought from them is now stuck on the PCs they're authenticated on.  Which means that when those machines die you lose that music.

Frankly, Fuck That.

In conversation with cairmen yesterday, similar ideological reasons for my dislike of the iPhone came up.  It's shiny, and it's neat to play with, but frankly it's not so much nicer than other phones that I'm willing to put up with Apple's ridiculous licensing agreements.  I have a Nokia phone.  Anyone can write software for it.  I can install anything I damn well please.  I shall be continuing to support manufacturers who produce hardware like this.

Comments

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Also it is a good reason why trusting Microsoft is a bad idea.

I believe when Google closed the DRMed video store they had they gave everyone the option of having their money returned to them, which seems like a very reasonable way of shutting down any DRMed lock in venture.

I don't think Google are angels btw - I just think they handled it in a much better way, a way no one would ever expect Microsoft to handle things.

The iPhone SDK thing is odd. I don't really understand why Apple are not completely opening it up - I can only suspect that it is related to the phone networks somehow. It may be that their contract forbids the development of VOIP apps for it. They have stated that they will not approve any VOIP apps for the iPhone software store.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - so far as I can tell so few people used the Google Video Store that they could afford to just shut it down and pay people back.

You do have to despair of this kind of behaviour - I smell a class-action lawsuit on the horizon...

You could be right about the SDK - allowing Java would allow users to run almost anything on their phones, probably including VOIP.

Frankly, the sooner they stop trying to lock phones down the better...

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I think there ought to be some kind of proper legal protection for people purchasing DRMed stuff. Like, if the owner wants to shut them service down they have to unDRM the files. That could work - it'd make such a service more expensive to run (you'd have to pay some insurance fee) but it would protect the users more.

I doubt Microsoft sold very much music on their music store either. AFAIK the only real game in town is the iTunes Music Store (apart from allofmp3 type places).

The funny thing about the iPhone is that it's not in Apple's interests to restrict it at all really. Locking it to a network prevents them from selling so many phones for instance. They have to do it because of the deals with the networks - but then of course the networks are giving them heaps of cash (and apparently a share of the line rental fees), so you can understand why they're doing it.

I suspect Apple will play this game loosely for awhile until everything is totally broken and everyone wants a (now much cheaper) iPhone v2 or v3, then they'll fully open it up.

[andrewducker]

iTunes is definitely the big one (although I believe that Amazon's MP3 marketplace is doing ok, as is eMusic - both of them have a way to go yet).

And yeah - Apple wanted huge wodges of cash, so going exclusive was the obvious way forward, but that has hobbled them somewhat. I do hope they open up later on. Then I can do some proper research and decide if I want an iPhone (I'll wait to see if it gets a decent camera, GPS, 3G, proper bluetooth, etc.)

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is at all hobbled for geeks, as Jailbreaking an iPhone is a plugin and click a button type thing.

It's perhaps broken for 'power' users.

[andrewducker]

It's broken insofar as I'm not prepared to deal with workarounds for things that may or may not void my warranty. Or that I shouldn't have to.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I don't know - if a work around consists of pressing a button I'm quite happy with that.

It also doesn't void your warranty.

Yeah, it would be nicer if it was official - but it's wrong to say it's 'broken' I think, for geeks at least.

[andrewducker]

Everything I've found says that jailbreaking does void your warranty. Care to point me at something official saying it doesn't?

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I've just had a look, and you're right. I was mistaken.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Surely M$ could release a small software patch that you could point to your MS-mp3s, which would strip the requirement for validation from them?

[andrewducker]

I'm willing to bet that MS don't have the rights to take the DRM off - they almost certainly only have the rights to sell DRMed music...