We wanted to do DRMless music, says Microsoft exec Rob Bennett: Lesson for e-bookers?
You already know about Microsoft’s latest DRM debacle—about the company’s plans to stop issuing DRM keys for the MSN Music service. You won’t be able to enjoy your purchases on new machines. Not after the the Aug. 31 deadline. And you’ll be SOL when already-authorized devices go kaput or get operating system upgrades. MSN Music is itself kaput or at least getting there. No more glory days.
So what does Microsoft have to say in its defense? As reported by CNet, Microsoft executive Rob Bennett says that “every time there is an OS upgrade, the DRM equation gets complex very quickly. Every time, you saw support issues. People would call in because they couldn’t download licenses. We had to write new code, new configurations each time…We really believe that, going forward, the best thing to do is focus exclusively on Zune.”
The inevitable e-book angle
Now, what about e-publishers who don’t want to tie their fortunes to Jeff Bezos’s whims or those of Sony or whatever—and yet insist on “protection”?
They and their DRM suppliers will have zillions of ever-changing complexities to worry about. So, alas, will their customers. Once again DRM will be a sales toxin. I’d love for Harlequin and LibrieDigital to reconsider their DRM plans. Learn from Microsoft, Harlequin. Feel your customers’ pain.
Backing off a bit from DRM, even at Microsoft
Just how could Bennett—Microsoft’s general manager of entertainment, video, and sports for MSN—defend DRM? Actually he won’t, or at least not as vehemently as he might have in the past. “Had we had the ability to deliver DRM-free tracks at the time, we absolutely would have done that,” CNet quotes him. “We talked to the labels at the time about that. As a company, we have continued to push for this. Zune has a subset in their catalog of DRM-free MP3s. Now, the industry is making progress. The labels are understanding the downside of DRM when it’s used the way they wanted to use it. They end up punishing the users who bought music legally more than those who want to circumvent the system.”
Related: Techmeme roundup of reactions to Bennett’s remarks, plus Boing Boing item headlined EMI: backing up music files online is illegal.
Housekeeping and a few more reflections on DRMed music: I’ll be away much of the day (when my mother’s ashes will be interred at Arlington Cemetery). So look for posts in the very late afternoon or evening. I can, incidentally, remember the leather-covered record player Mom used to listen to My Fair Lady and Flower Drum Song. Does my sister by chance still have the records and the right machine? If so, without the least worry about DRM keys, she can listen to the music decades after Mom bought it—and think of the people and experiences that the sounds evoke. Like PW’s zapped links, DRM is a memory destroyer.
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