more customer dis-service from Microsoft

I've stated before that I don't steal music. But the big music companies treat me, and millions of other music consumers, as if we do.

It's not just the music labels who use new-speak Digital Rights Management (but are indeed relenting as they see profit in sales) but it's also the providers, such as the increasingly irrelevant RealMusic, and nearly everyone's (not me!) darling Apple, and nearly everyone's target Microsoft.

Read about this recent development.

If you ever needed more proof of why DRM is just a terrible set of technologies that do nothing but frustrate legit customers, the MSN Music store is a prime example. The doomed service was shut down over a year ago upon the launch of the Zune, forcing people to switch to a new service. That minor annoyance aside, the change was manageable because Microsoft kept alive their authorization server for the DRM-locked music files people had previously purchased. Thus, even if the customer purchased a new computer, they could unlock that music.

But that is about to change. Microsoft has announced that they will cease maintaining the key retrieval service by the end of August.

As a result, for all the music purchased on the MSN Music store it will become impossible to retrieve your keys. If the music is transferred to another device, it can never be unlocked again – at least not in a legal way – rendering that purchase a total loss to that person. For those that have libraries of music purchased through the MSN store, they will be locked in to that specific hardware for as long as they want to use those files.

Ultimately, this serves as a reminder of what DRM really is: A way for companies to control your use of their content. Rather than purchasing, you are renting.

Microsoft to cease authorizing MSN Music keys
By Justin Mann, TechSpot.com
Published: April 22, 2008, 9:08 PM EST