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Posts Tagged “

Drm

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verizon

Verizon Gets Rhapsody Subscriptions, DRM-Free Downloads

Verizon customers with certain VCAST phones have some new options for buying music, thanks to Rhapsody. First off, the $15 per month, all-the-songs-you-can-guzzle subscription service is offered on LG's Decoy and Dare, Moto's W755 and Samsung's SCH-u550, Glyde, and Juke, and will be available for the Chocolate 3 when it's out. Also, $2 over-the-air download tracks now come with a DRM-free MP3 version that you can snag on your computer with VCAST/Rhapsody software. If you can hold your horses and wait till you're on a PC to download, DRM-free tracks are yours for a buck, which can be sideloaded onto the phone like usual. Press release after the jump. [Verizon] More »

12:01 AM on Mon Jun 30 2008
By Benny Goldman
2,299 views, 4 comments

Latest by roflwaffles: Awesome, im already a subscriber, so hopefully my phone supports this. more »

music

Rhapsody Opens DRM-Free Music Store, First 100,000 Albums Free

Rhapsody, known for its subscription music service, just opened a DRM-free MP3 store. The MP3s are encoded in 256kpbs CBR, and run $.99 per track and $9.99 per album. Shoppers can preview 25 full-length tracks a month from the standard 5 million song catalog, which is extra sweet if you ask us. To kick things off, the first 100,000 sign-ups to the store until July 4th get one album for free, so give it a try and let us know how it stacks up against the big boys. UPDATE: Both versions of the Rhapsody store are now available on Verizon phones. [Rhapsody]

12:01 AM on Mon Jun 30 2008
By Benny Goldman
3,085 views, 22 comments

Latest by Pasukin: I just downloaded an album without a problem. It took about 36 minutes to download the 138MB Zip file (19 tracks @ 256Kbps). Average speed was about 64KB/sec. more »

xbox 360

The Xbox 360 DRM Transfer Tool Is Here

You know that problem of having to be signed into Xbox Live after you transferred your content from your old, broken Xbox 360 to your new, slightly less broken Xbox 360? The one where you can't play your old stuff on your new machine without having an active connection? They've got a fix out now called the DRM Transfer Tool that solves just this issue. The whole thing takes "less than a minute," and transfers your license for the content between machines so you can watch/play it without being signed on. Hit up the link to do it to yours. [Xbox via Gamer Score Blog]

4:35 PM on Thu Jun 26 2008
By Jason Chen
3,605 views, 16 comments

Latest by axiomatic: 1. About f-ing time Microsoft. 2. If you remove the DRM and price accordingly you could have made money instead of loosing it in development costs. more »

drm

Microsoft Screws Customers Less, Keeps MSN Music Servers Open Late

Microsoft will extend the life of its MSN Music servers—that authorize its old purchased music for new PCs or players—to at least 2011, after originally scheduling them for shutdown later this year. After "careful consideration", it decided it was a good idea to hold off on screwing the poor folks who bought songs smothered in PlaysForSure (HA!) DRM. Microsoft recommends burning your songs to CD to avoid being caught in this DRM death hole; we say you should poke around the web—there are plenty of ways to strip DRM without burning a CD. [Digital Home Thoughts]

12:09 PM on Thu Jun 19 2008
By Benny Goldman
2,818 views, 21 comments

Latest by bpatten: @wjousts: Indeed. You know what I meant though. more »

music

Updated Napster DRM-Free Store <3 iPods

Napster announced the transition to all DRM-free MP3s several months back, but now their 6 million song catalog is fully up and running. Now compatible with iPods/iPhones, Napster even claims that their inventory is "50% larger than any other MP3 store," though we're a little confused on the math since iTunes offers "more than 6 million [songs]" themselves. Most of Napster's catalog will be available at 256kbps bitrate, and they claim to be the first store to offer 100% MP3-formatted tracks. Anyone gonna give the service (another) go?

UPDATE: Ahh, we get it. Largest "MP3 store," not digital music store. Nice catch, commenters! More »

9:20 AM on Tue May 20 2008
By Mark Wilson
3,353 views, 37 comments

Latest by wildness: I'll stick with Amazon.com and eMusic.com more »

riaa

RIAA Tech Chief: DRM Not Dead, Will Become More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine

As CNET points out, when Sony BMG became the last major label to sell DRM-free tracks, we pretty much declared DRM deader than HD DVD or Tony Stark if he got in a fight with Batman (at least for the music industry; movies are another story). But RIAA tech chief David Hughes told a panel yesterday that DRM is tech's Obi-Wan Kenobi: It's coming back and will be powerful than we can possibly imagine, but it won't be giving sage advice to budding Jedi. More »

7:00 PM on Thu May 8 2008
By matt buchanan
6,293 views, 42 comments

Latest by VENAT0R: a pirates life for me! more »

drm

Five Stores That Hosed Customers With DRM

Sure, it's easy to blithely state that DRM is annoying and sucks. But the fact is, it really can leave you holding vaporous media that you paid real money for, like when a vendor closes up shop or switches to new DRM. Last 100 rounds up five stores that have done just that: Major League Baseball (switched DRM, nuking any video bought pre-2006); Google (killed video store, and any vids you bought); Sony (ditched ATRAC and shut down Sony Connect); Virgin Digital (closed store, told customers to burn tracks to CDs and re-import as MP3); and most recently, Microsoft, which is shuttering MSN Music and its PlaysForSure (now officially worst DRM name ever) authentication servers in August. More »

12:15 PM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By matt buchanan
8,184 views, 44 comments

Latest by n/a: Comment on Five Stores That Hosed Customers With DRM Another story of a digital store that hosed customers is that of Triton ( http://en.wikipedia. ) "Triton was a digital delivery and digital rights management service created by Digital Interactive Streams, which more »

gaming

Is Microsoft Fixing Their Broken Xbox Live DRM?

By now you have probably heard about or experienced the issue Microsoft has with its broken Xbox Live DRM. Basically, gamers who purchased content on Live found that the downloads ceased to function properly after their original console bit the dust. If a tip from a Consumerist reader is correct, Microsoft may be in the process of fixing this issue. More »

10:00 PM on Wed Mar 26 2008
By Sean Fallon
6,275 views, 33 comments

legalese

Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Locked Up: Why Your Books Are No Longer Yours

If you buy a regular old book, CD or DVD, you can turn around and loan it to a friend, or sell it again. The right to pass it along is called the "first sale" doctrine. Digital books, music and movies are a different story though. Four students at Columbia Law School's Science and Technology Law Review looked at the particular issue of reselling and copying e-books downloaded to Amazon's Kindle or the Sony Reader, and came up with answers to a fundamental question: Are you buying a crippled license to intellectual property when you download, or are you buying an honest-to-God book? More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Fri Mar 21 2008
By matt buchanan
32,924 views, 62 comments

Latest by n/a: the kindle is way overhyped more »

cracked

AnyDVD HD Is Here, So Start the Blu-ray BD+ DRM Crackin'

Late last year, disc-copying software maker SlySoft claimed they cracked the BD+ DRM protection in Blu-ray discs. They weren't kidding. The newest version of AnyDVD HD strips Blu-ray discs of BD+, allowing you to copy even the most locked-up Blu-ray discs (*cough*Fox*cough*) to your heart's content—assuming the copies are for personal use, of course. On the DVD front, the updated software rips movies that can't be read by Windows, and can now get around most ARccOS protection. Sounds like a reasonable temptation to all you pirate types, so run along, have at it and report back to us. [SlySoft] Thanks, Mike!!

4:35 PM on Wed Mar 19 2008
By Benny Goldman
18,888 views, 37 comments

Latest by Zlevee: @deadatbirth440: Actually they did that first, several releases ago. more »

question of the day

$5 a Month For Legal P2P: Would It Lure Pirates From the Dark Side?

With CD sales dwindling fast, DRM dead, and major artists starting to give their music away—it is clear that record labels need to do something drastic to lure pirates away from illegal downloading. As Wired and ArsTechnica point out, one of the ideas on the table is to generate a file sharing surcharge that would be collected by ISPs—something like $5 a month for unlimited downloads with the proceeds being doled out to artists based on the number of times their music was traded during the month. Seems a little too good to be true, but it does raise the question: would $5 unlimited P2P be enough to convert you from a life of piracy? More »

7:30 PM on Mon Mar 17 2008
By Sean Fallon
13,954 views, 103 comments

Latest by Skeptic: "Would $5 Unlimited P2P Stop Your Illegal Downloading?" You for got to ask "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Expect a subpoena from the RIAA for the IPs of everyone who voted yes **or** no. more »

apple

Apple Second Only To Wal-Mart in Music Sales, But For How Long?

Apple just slipped out a second press release this AM bragging that, according to NPD, it is now the #2 music retailer in the US, behind the megalithic Wal-Mart. More »

10:06 AM on Tue Feb 26 2008
By Wilson Rothman
6,615 views, 38 comments

ps3

PlayStation 3 PlayTV Recordings Can Be Copied Anywhere

For the first time in a long time, we want to grab Sony and kiss them square on the lips. Because PlayTV, the PlayStation 3's DVR/PVR (that's not coming to the States yet), will record television to MPEG2 files that can be easily copied off the system to any storage medium you'd like. That's right, no DRM.

But can Sony do such things legally? According to their producer Mark Bunting, it's fair game:

More »

9:22 AM on Tue Feb 26 2008
By Mark Wilson
14,984 views, 57 comments

software

DVD Jon's doubleTwist Allows Ripping of iTunes Music Files

Only a few people remember this, but DVD Jon cracked Apple's Fairplay DRM way back in late 2006 and offered it up for companies to purchase the tech and integrate it into their own media files. Now DVD Jon has started his own company called doubleTwist that lets people rip protected iTunes music in order to have those files play on other company's devices, such as the Sony PSP or the Zune. More »

1:40 PM on Tue Feb 19 2008
By Jason Chen
10,467 views, 27 comments

across the universe

Space Aliens First to Get DRM-Free Beatles Music?

You may have heard that at 7pm EST on Feb. 4, NASA plans to blast The Beatles' song "Across the Universe" into deep space in order to serenade otherworldly beings hundreds, thousands or millions of light years away with our very best pop music. I have several problems with this. More »

9:57 AM on Fri Feb 1 2008
By Wilson Rothman
17,148 views, 48 comments

rumor smashed

Major Labels Deny Signing Deals With Qtrax, Downloading Music Via P2P Still Illegal

Qtrax, the free and legal P2P music network that promised 25 million songs from the four major record labels sounded too good to be true. It turns out that's because it wasn't true. The BBC reports that three of the four major labels have denied making agreements with the company, and the link promising a midnight software download is still inactive. Update: Silicon Alley Insider reports that Sony BMG also denies having a deal in place. More »

10:41 AM on Mon Jan 28 2008
By Benny Goldman
4,429 views, 31 comments

Latest by n/a: i should of know that this was scam o fake ho site will ever let s download music for free more »

music

Smart Party Wireless DJ System Will Get Playlist Votes From Your Trousered MP3 Player

A new system devised by a pair of UCLA students could well bring democracy to music selection at parties. The two scientists have created a software-and-antennae combo that currently works on laptops, scanning people's music collections, grabbing the most popular tunes from guests' MP3 players and adding them to the night's playlist. The next step will be to see if Smart Party can be made to work on MP3 players (currently it works on laptops), polling partygoers' music devices as they arrive at the party. More info below. More »

7:42 AM on Mon Jan 21 2008
By Kit Eaton
1,985 views, 9 comments

Latest by manyou07: Instead of copying songs, they should just use the tag data to match against songs the house has in their collection. That way: a) they wouldn't be copying files, so it wouldn't be illegal and b) the house could control, to a more »

drm

Will Digital Watermarking Rise From DRM's Ashes?

Okay, so DRM is dead dead dead. Hurray, right? Well, Wired says it's simply being swapped out for digital watermarking, which will lay out breads crumbs for the labels to follow as songs make their way across P2P networks, and the bundle of evidence will allow them to place pressure on ISPs to engage in large-scale network filtering. More »

5:30 PM on Mon Jan 14 2008
By matt buchanan
3,637 views, 26 comments

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