Posts tagged “RIAA anti-consumer”

Paying for music online? You are a sucker.

Cory over at BoingBoing has a crystal clear example why you should never, ever pay for music that contains DRM:

Hey suckers! Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they’re repaying your honesty by taking away your music. Unless you go through a bunch of hoops (that you may never find out about, if you’ve changed email addresses or if you’re not a very technical person), your music will no longer be playable after October 9th.

But don’t worry, this will never ever happen to all those other DRM companies — unlike little fly-by-night mom-and-pop operations like Wal*Mart, the DRM companies are rock-ribbed veterans of commerce and industry, sure to be here for a thousand years…They are as solid and permanent as Commodore, Atari, the Soviet Union, the American credit system and the Roman Empire. Cory Doctorow
Happy Mutant

It is a good thing Congress created a new cabinet-level Copyright Czar on Friday to make sure we, the pesky consumers of content, don’t start demanding silly things like access to the goods we have purchased. What’s that you say? You thought Congress was meeting on Friday with singular focus to solve the “impending doom” (clears throat, screams Bullshit!) that is the Wall St. meltdown? Damn, you really are a sucker.

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Ten years in, music industry begins to get it

I wasn’t the first to the checkout lane with an mp3 player. I am a music hoarder and therefore loved the idea, but when they broke on the scene I was a poor college student and there simply wasn’t enough money in the beer fund to buy the pricey gadgets that let you put 200 (!) songs on one CD. Then graduation day came and a generous Aunt and Uncle later, I was rocking the Rio Volt SP100. I was in hog heaven.

I hit the eurail that summer, Volt in hand, and there were near fisticuffs with my traveling companions over this player that today can be had at Walmart for $20. Why? Well, on the train, there isn’t a lot to do (at least not in 2001). Music can get you through a lot of boring and confining moments on overnight hauls. But the macro concept there was the fact that you got to take your music with you.

Portable music libraries entered the consumers mind with the walkman in the 80’s, but it wasn’t until the mp3 player that your music fit in your pocket. There wasn’t a bulky shoebox of tapes or Case Logic book of CD’s that had to be toted along with your gadget. Your gadget now WAS your music! Most excellent.

We’ve recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the mp3 player and I am seven years removed from my Rio delight. I am happy to report that the music industry might finally have figured out how to interact with consumers on the digital playing field.

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