Digital theft?

So let's get this straight.

You buy a song. But the retailer says it would be better for you that you don't actually own the song.

It would be so much better, the retailer tells you, that it should keep the song. It will allow you to play it anytime you wish (but not quite with any music-playing device you own).

But then ... the the retailer, who now has your money (and that of millions of others), says, "Oh, so sorry. You can't play that music anymore. But thank you for your money."

Welcome to the bizarro world of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

The newest catch-22 comes from Yahoo! which just this week announced that as of 1 October 2008 it will no longer support any purchases from its Yahoo! Music Unlimited Store (and in the process will redefine the meaning of "unlimited").

This model of unlimited rental has been showed to be a fraud, and in a manner, theft. The music business has been crying that it is we the consumers who are music thieves. What they do is not theft?

I don't steal music. I buy it, whether vinyl, CD, or download.

My most recent purchase --a download through eMusic, one of (now) many on-line music stores -- was a mid-90s recording from the Old 97's. It's wonderful alternative-country-rock, or whatever the category is that it falls into. But I dislike that damnable misuse of the " ' ". An apostrophe indicates possession or contraction, not the plural.

[UPDATE 2008.07.28]

Yahoo Music plans to issue refunds and is trying to go one step further. If a customer would prefer music over a refund, Yahoo is looking for a way to give the customer copies of the purchased songs in the DRM-free MP3 format, according to a Yahoo representative.

Yahoo Music is transferring customers of Yahoo Music Unlimited to RealNetworks' Rhapsody service. These are both subscription music services, so Yahoo users who choose to make the move are unaffected. But those who purchased songs would be out of luck after September 30.