Walmart to shut down DRM servers

Walmart to shut down DRM servers

Daniel Fleshbourne on 01 October 2008 - 09:41 · 14 comments & 3951 views

Advertisement (Why?)

Walmart is becoming the latest music vendor to shut down its legacy digital rights management (DRM) system, prompting warnings of potential for lost purchases. The company is advising users to back up any songs which are currently running with the company's DRM software. When the company shuts down in licensing servers on October 9th, users will be unable to verify new machines or transfer songs to other systems.

Walmart has been selling DRM-free files for more than a year through its online service. The new files are being distributed as clean MP3 files, whereas the DRM-equipped songs and videos were encoded in the WMA format. "DRM-protected music has been a sensitive issue and we recognize how confusing it can be to customers," lead music buyer Tom Welch said in a blog posting.

View: the full story @ vnunet

About the Author

Full name: Daniel Fleshbourne
User name: Daniel
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: View All
More: View Bio New!

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 14 additional comments

(3 replies) #1 markjensen on 01 Oct 2008 - 11:00

I have always been against DRM, as it puts the customer/consumer at risk of being denied access to their own purchased product.

Even when DRM is touted as delivering an "enhanced user experience". Bad.

#1.1 Majesticmerc on 01 Oct 2008 - 11:23

+1

How could DRM ever possibly provide an "Enhanced User Experience"

#1.2 Tantawi on 01 Oct 2008 - 11:41

(Majesticmerc said @ #1.1)

+1

How could DRM ever possibly provide an "Enhanced User Experience"

If a user sued Wal-Mart and gained some greens, that's Enhanced User Experience

#1.3 webeagle12 on 01 Oct 2008 - 13:16

(Tantawi said @ #1.2)

(Majesticmerc said @ #1.1)

+1

How could DRM ever possibly provide an "Enhanced User Experience"

If a user sued Wal-Mart and gained some greens, that's Enhanced User Experience

(1 reply) #2 +GreyWolfSC on 01 Oct 2008 - 11:46

Lame, but it's Walmart.... They should offer to replace the DRM tracks with unprotected ones.

#2.1 +Shadrack on 01 Oct 2008 - 17:52

For sure. They are about to upset the 2 loyal customers that bought them back then. Lol, j/k i dunno.

#3 chaosblade on 01 Oct 2008 - 14:31

Indeed, "May Lose" is not a customer friendly quote. Replace the DRM-enabled tracks with clean ones.

#4 C_Guy on 01 Oct 2008 - 14:40

It's so ironic that DRM was the only way to initially convince the music labels to sell their product online. Now that enough consumers are on board they are demanding that DRM be removed.

But, with DRM or not, people will still steal if they want to steal and pay if they want to pay. For those who choose to pay, DRM is a small inconvenience. For those who choose to steal, their means don't generally involve songs with DRM.

(2 replies) #5 plan-9 on 01 Oct 2008 - 15:11

Nothing wrong with DRM. Its there to protect content from being stolen. Problem is there should be a standard. There really is no reason why songs purchased off itunes shouldnt be allowed to play off other players besides an ipod. Thats the only thing I have against DRM. If unprotected mp3 is becoming the standard would be great since pretty much every player will be able to use it. Hopefully all the online music stores start using it now.

#5.1 markjensen on 01 Oct 2008 - 17:50

Nothing wrong with the concept of DRM. It is when the implementation adversely affects the consumers fair use that it is bad.

And I have never run across an implementation of DRM that did NOT restrict users in such a way.

A grenade can be designed well, but if you hand it do common consumers with the pin pulled... Bad stuff happens to those consumers eventually.

#5.2 eAi on 01 Oct 2008 - 23:49

The concept of DRM is all about limiting use (fair or otherwise).

It's up to Apple if they want to sell a product that won't work with another product. Just like you can't by HP ink cartridges from Epson. iTunes is the software for iPods, just like HP's drivers/photo software/other bundled junk only works with their printers.

#6 Mathachew on 01 Oct 2008 - 17:21

And this is why I remove the DRM on all of my music that I purchase. I have one song on my system that I cannot play because it was purchased through MSN Music a few years back and is unable to verify ownership.

#7 Xeta on 01 Oct 2008 - 22:29

Surprised that another jump-on-the-bandwagon DRM music service is going offline? No.
Surprised that people bought DRM music from Wal Mart? Yes.

#8 Jugalator on 02 Oct 2008 - 07:50

lol.. well, as usualy with drm, you don't own the music, just rent it according to the license agreement

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Advertisement (Why?)

Neowin.net

Walmart to shut down DRM servers

Share this Article

About the Author

Related news