Microsoft could have ended this before it started, by staying out of the music business. Corporate greed drove them into the problem, and until they decide to quit trying to rule our cyber-lives, there will be those who rebel. It costs all of us time, effort, and frustration to put up with DRM.

The DMCA was one of the two downfalls of the Clinton era, and in both cases it showed he listened to Janet Reno and others in the Justice Dept too much. [the other was Waco]

USE LINUX!

I think that the music industry is hurting itself with the whole DRM crap. If somone doesn’t want to pay for music/videos he can just use P2P-filsharing like eMule or Bittorrent and get narly everything he wants – for free! And no DRM will ever stop that because if a SINGLE media file in the whole wold gets cracked and converted to a DRM-free fomat it can be shared and no DRM can ever stop it again.

If a customer is willing to pay and downloads from online stores then RIAA & friends should be lucky, jump up and down in joy and help the customer to get the best experience possible. Especially I think of offering eg. the music in various formats, with perfect MP3-tags, integrated cover art, and even lyrics! So you have a real surplus value compared to filesharing where you have to rename everything yourself
And NOT punish the customer with DRM for paying!!!

I for myself own a fileserver in my home with PCs as media playing devices (yes, also for TV) and if something is DRM protected I cannot put it on my fileserver and play it on the Clients. So I cannot use it. So I will not use these online stores to buy. It’s that simple! (yes, I have really tried – all the legal music stores are just plain unusable crap!!!)

Right on Ron…I totally agree…even with the gun thing. These corporations suck. Who wants to download internet radio anyway? I mean if you are going to rip something, you may as well get better quality than net radio. I have never heard of anyone ripping anything off of web radio. I think they just came up with that whole DRM thing to make them look like they won something in that ridiculous battle against the people.

[quote]Microsoft could have ended this before it started, by staying out of the music business[/quote]

I totally agree with that.

Even more, if a DRM total removal tool appear for Vista I might upgrade from XP, if not, my next upgrade will probably be ubuntu… My PC is my PC, period, protection for their music in my PC has no place. Their music, their problem.

The whole DRM argument is inflated anyway. The RIAA wants everyone to think if 100,000 one dollar songs are stolen, they just lost $100,000. The kids and adults stealing this music would not have bought all that music if they had to pay for it. The theives are going to steal no matter what you do, quit punishing the rest of us. Steve Jobs actually said something brilliant once when he proposed that the RIAA would sell more without the restrictions. I don’t buy because of thre restrictins and would if there were none. I am betting a lot more people would too.

All this is an unbelievable situation…
- The first PC, it knew the command: COPY; this is a necessity for any PC and one of its major roles…
- What they might do: a ROM operating system, without the possibility to install anything on it! And this does exist: a DVD player… Also I could update the BIOS to ignore regional code… I am modest, but I saw a “professional” with 5 DVD one over the other… He spent 5×50 USD and it could legal see any DVD region…
- A PC to act like a DVD player, it will not be a PC! Stop. DOT. DOT. DOT.
- Did you know that IF you have an “original” HDTV source (1080) the Vista will downgrade to NTSC (480), then will “software enhance” to HDTV (1080)? This “protection” will forbid you to have access to original quality of the source. Hence, you can buy any DVD to have at least the same quality (480 enhanced to 1080), or much better (720 enhanced to 1080) !!!
- Next OS? An XP on a Vista machine! Or LinuX…

Totally agree on DRM. Has raised an entire generation of music listeners to look at the music industry as the enemy.

And the 12 juror/6 pallbearer sounds as spontaneous as Heston’s “prying from my cold dead hands”, and not sure what the analogy was – that RIAA oughtta to destroy pirating teens and ask questions later?

I stopped buying cd’s the second some einstein in the music industry threatened to sue me for making a cd of a record I legally purchased and then even asked the recording industry if it was ever going to be released on cd so I could buy it. I am an audiophile and I own over 3000 records and 45′s (for you post cd people, these are the little black discs that play when you place them on a player and use the needle to get sound) and not to mention over 18 casette boxes filled with casettes. And I would bet that well over 95% of them have never been made into a cd or will be, and these are top names like Starship-Heart-Kiss-Led Zepplin-AC/DC-Styx-Aerosmith…you get the picture. And no these are not bootlegs either.

But when some butt munching cubical creature tries to tell me that I cannot make a cd out of music I already own and even has the audacity to have their attorneys send me a cease and desist letter (and no I am not selling these nor giving them away, this was for my personal use only) I draw the line and as the old saying goes..”it’s on now!”

Do I believe downloading music is illegal…no. As long as you pay a fair price for the music (even a dollar a song sounds expensive…$.30 to $.50 per song is more like it)

But if the only way you can get a decent copy of music that you already own without having to go out and purchase a new copy or being a wizard on every new codec and mp3 program out there, then I say go for it and the recording company and artist be damned.

If the RIAA would just take every song they have copywrited and place them up for sale at a fair price and in a cd quality or close to cd quality sound, they would make a mint and the file sharing of music would vanish overnight to a very few people.

Sorry this was so long but this really BURNS my cookies!!

I think the RIAA should be abolished. LimeWire had the guts to counter-sue the corporate fascists as being an illegal monopoly. The artists signed with them hardly get anything from cd sales. Artists are forced to make an X amount of albums in an X amount of years, and the record companies can reject an album they don’t like and extend the contract album count by one to keep their artists locked into their contracts until they make enough “good” albums. Artists make most of their money doing concerts and private shows.
Another thing to consider is that most of today’s “pop” artists are all practically clones of each other. Their music, looks, etc are basically the same. Lots of pop-singer girls that sing about their ex’s and failed relationships and hip-hop guys that sing about whatever it is they sing about. I never hear the music I like on the radio (metal, industrial, etc) and most of the people I know both online and off is that this is the same case with them. I’ve started listening to independent artists lately (like on MySpace or Magnatunes) and find the music quality there is MUCH better than the crap you can get at your local corporate mega-store.
Also consider the recent stories about the RIAA’s latests effort to thwart toddlers from dancing to a 30-second clip of a song from over a decade ago as well as punishing a YouTube guitar teacher from teaching people how to play a song by the Rolling Stones (you can buy sheet music, just don’t show others how to play it.)
Microsoft is in bed with these media pigs and their consumer-hating, unethical ways. It’s only a matter of time before MS begins crumbling badly, and then the alternatives out there (mainly the free ones like Linux) will not be able to cough over the fees to license the archaic MP3 codec, and the RIAA will be even more vulnerable to being sued for shoving that codec down everyone’s throat and trying to stamp out the competition (ogg, flac, etc.) The entire media industry will hurt if MS crumbles (and I think it will.) Companies ranging from cell-phone makers to song download services will need to update to provide support for alternatives to the monopolistic MP3. If the corporate media pigs do crumble and/or collapse, you will not hear any sorrow from me, just laughter.
I’m only going to buy used cd’s and cd’s from independent artists from now on. No point in paying $15-$20 just to get one song on an album.

Well, this little rant comment has gone on long enough, so I’ll just say in closing, this is just my $.02

what you gust are experiencing in the states will soon hit Europe. speaking off topic( slightly). Microsoft are trying to claim that they don;t have to abide by the terms of the gpl, I n other words, they are taking gpl’d software and attempting to claim sole rights, even their own lawyers have told them they are treading too Far.
Also, Microsoft are out to destroy the Linux movement. Mr Gates is due to relinquish his presidency of the monolith, why? because Vista is the death knell of Microsoft, and he, along with Bulmer, KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE. DRM, is the final nail in the proverbial coffin, I’m away to the land of Linux.
bye all”"

If the RIAA had to turn over 100% of any monies awarded in these lawsuits straight to the artists in question, you would see these lawsuits disappear faster then you can snap your fingers.

I have the new messages and i’m in Canada