If you bought tunes from MSN Music, it may soon suck to be you.
Microsoft’s DRM-laden tracks allowed limited portability, but owners who upgraded their computers or operating systems still needed to reauthorize their already purchased music with MSN’s DRM servers in order to transfer it to approved devices. Now, because the Redmond brainiacs can’t (or won’t) manage that mess, those servers are going dark. And guess who’s going to pay for the portability?
That’s right, you. Last week, Microsoft announced it was deactivating its validation servers because the whole process was just too complex, which is somewhat humorous coming from a company with a mission statement claiming it wants to help businesses and people realize their full potential. Evidently, that lofty goal does not include following through with technological solutions Microsoft creates.
"Microsoft is asking its customers to spend more time, labor, and money to make degraded copies of music that was purchased in good faith," Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director Shari Steele complained in an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outlining ways the company could right its wrong. (Yeah, right.) "This outcome was easily foreseeable from the moment Microsoft chose to wrap MSN Music files in DRM. Microsoft customers should not have to pay for Microsoft’s bad business decisions."
Too bad they will. If MSN Music fans want to transfer music they paid for to another computer or different device, they’re going to have to buy it all over again — or download it. And labels wonder why the wired world turns to P2P. It’s enough to make a music fan go crazy, like Steve Ballmer does in the video above. Crazy is as crazy does.
See also:
