Yahoo Returns Stolen Money
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on July 29, 2008 at 2:01:30 PM
Did that headline grab your attention? Yahoo will refund money to people that bought DRM stricken music that can no longer be played. This is an important trend. Companies are finally seeing that DRM is not the right way to do things.
The point is that once you buy DRM content from a company, if that company decides to stop its DRM key delivery service, your content is garbage. That's what is happening here. This is why it is important to keep open files only. All of your iTunes purchases will be backed by Apple even when the company goes under, right?
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And surprisingly, EFF doesn't necessarily want Microsoft to also offer refunds. After Microsoft shuttered MSN Music, the company announced last spring that it would stop issuing DRM keys. After being criticized, Microsoft decided to continue supporting its music for three more years. McSherry said that Microsoft's decision ensures that customers get what they paid for. That's all EFF wanted.
"In both cases, each of the companies has been forced to acknowledge they must do right by their customers," McSherry said. "I do hope that any other vendor (selling DRM-protected media), learns a lesson. They all must live up to the conditions that they set when they sold their music."
The point is that once you buy DRM content from a company, if that company decides to stop its DRM key delivery service, your content is garbage. That's what is happening here. This is why it is important to keep open files only. All of your iTunes purchases will be backed by Apple even when the company goes under, right?