If you really want your music “any way you want it,” you’re best off buying a CD.
Online music stores such as the iTunes Music Store, Napster 2.0, and RealNetworks have plenty of marketing hype to convince you that their DRM-encumbered music downloads will let you play your music as you see fit. The reality, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is something else entirely.
If you buy music from an online music store, you may be getting much less than you thought. Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released “The Customer Is Always Wrong: A User’s Guide to DRM in Online Music,” which exposes how today’s digital rights management (DRM) systems compromise a consumer’s right to lawfully manage her music the way she wants.
The guide takes a close look at popular online music services with built-in DRM created by Apple, Microsoft, RealNetworks, and Napster 2.0. Although these companies claim their services allow consumers “freedom” and the ability to play music “any way you want it,” the reality often does not live up to the marketing hype. When you download in these formats from online music services, the services don’t trumpet the fact that your music contains hidden restrictions that complicate your life and limit the universe of devices you can use to play your music. CDs purchased 20 years ago not only continue to play in every CD and DVD player, but can also be used with any of today’s PCs and digital music players. Thanks to DRM, however, a similar investment in music downloaded today may be much less valuable to you 20 years from now.
And yet bypassing the DRM to make perfectly legal uses puts people at risk of liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). “In this brave new world of ‘authorized digital music services,’ law-abiding music fans often get less for their money than they did in the old world of CDs,” said Derek Slater, the Harvard student and EFF intern who authored the guide. “Understanding how DRM and the DMCA pose a danger to your rights will help you to make fully informed purchasing decisions.” — Electronic Frontier Foundation
I think I’ll continue to stick with my CD purchases and completely unencumbered MP3s for my iPod, thank you very much.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license.
Video published by this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling+ license.
Bad Behavior has blocked 3375 access attempts in the last 7 days.
Facebook
Digg
del.icio.us
reddit.com
Newsvine
Mark J
Sep 01, 2005
iTunes allows you to burn the music to CDDA (regular audio CD), which can then be imported in any open format you like. That’s what I do. iTunes may be more lenient than the other services in that regard… I don’t know. It’s an extra step, but it saves you a trip to the store, and is easier on your wallet than a CD.
iJosh
Sep 02, 2005
The EFF Article is also wrong on one point about iTunes, there is no restrictions on backing up the file. Heck you can hand out the protected music file to all your friends, burn the file (outside of iTunes, say using the Finder/Disk Utility) to CD/DVD for archival purposes, and/or copy it to as many locations on your hard drive/s as you like. The limitation is… only 5 computers with your login information will be authorized to PLAY the songs. Yes the tried and true (unencumberd) CD will stand as abeacon in the DRM’ed future. That still doesn’t change what the RIAA thinks of your rights with said CD vs. the encumbered music files. So if you can burn the songs to a flat audio CD, you have the same rights if you bought it on the shiney silver disc in the first place. iTunes lets me do that 7 times, more if I juggle playlists.
Michael Hampton
Sep 02, 2005
Josh, I think you’ve made my point for me.
iJosh
Sep 03, 2005
Maybe my point wasn’t so clear. My point was, any DRM encumbered digital music service that allows the files to be burnt as an unecumbered, redbook standard audio CD hands you the same rights as if you bought the album in it’s physical form. The issues of sound quality and the art/linernotes as an artwork in itself aside.
Chris
Sep 03, 2005
I have no problem with electronic distribution, but I can’t see myself buying downloaded music if things stay the way they are. My “system” is to subscribe to Real Rhapsody (the 3-month-for-$27 version) and buy whatever CDs I want on my iPod from the Amazon “CDNOW Preferred Buyer’s Club” for $8-$10 apiece. Not to sound like a salesman or anything, but the “club” is really just buy one CD in a year and that’s your obligation fulfilled, not the “get 12 CDs free now and buy five more in two year” kind of thing with BMG and such. Amazon’s supersaver shipping usually means that when I buy three CDs, I get free shipping, so for the same or lower price than iTunes, I have an unrestricted CD. I’ve been with Real for more than a year and have purchased a few dozen CDs… although it’s a bit irksome to pay for a subscription and still not own it, I’m really satisfied with Real Rhapsody – I mean, 1.2m+ songs at 160kbps for that price!?!?!
Just my 2c…
Jun 11, 2007
Supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation - Homeland Stupidity