There is a very interesting and well-written post over at dive into mark about what is going to happen when Microsoft stops supporting the MSN Music DRM.
I’ll let Mark Pilgrim do the talking:
So what happens on August 31, 2008? On that day, Microsoft will turn off the servers that they maintain for the sole purpose of validating that the songs that people have already “purchased” through MSN Music are still theirs to play. Those people (hereafter “the victims”) will not notice the change right away. The victims will only notice it when they purchase a new computer, or when they upgrade the operating system on their current computer, or when the hard drive in their computer dies and needs to be rebuilt/reinstalled. At that point — transferring the music files they have “purchased” to another drive or a new computer — the Microsoft music player running on the victim’s PC (like iTunes, but all Microsoft-y instead of Apple-y) will make a call to Microsoft’s validation servers to verify that the music files were legitimately purchased. This call will fail, since the servers are not responding, since Microsoft has intentionally turned them off. The Microsoft music player will then conclude, incorrectly but steadfastly, that the music files were downloaded illegally and that the victim is a filthy pirate, and it will refuse to play them. In this case, the left hand knows exactly what the right hand is doing: they’re both giving you the finger.
According to a news.com article, a bill introduced to the House last Friday by Democrats would put responsibility on college’s to monitor their students traffic, with some very serious consequences if they choose not to do so.
From the article:
According to the bill, if universities did not agree to test “technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity,” all of their students–even ones who don’t own a computer–would lose federal financial aid.
First of all, I’d like to applaud the Democrats for threatening their base. Seriously, what the hell are you guys thinking? For a party who insists that they want to separate government interests from corporate interests, this is a perfect example of protecting corporate interests by implementing advertising supported venues for music distribution.
My main beef with all of this is that the people who are making the laws do not know ANYTHING about the technologies they are attempting to put a stop to. They don’t seem to realize that the people they are threatening (”Stop the piracy or we’ll take away your loans! Seriously this time guys!”) are some of the only people who continue to be innovative and help maintain the basic infrastructure that politicians rely on to disseminate their BS and propaganda.
I rarely download music anymore and I’m not currently in college, but these kinds of policies and bills are not what is going to solve the problems that are currently being experienced by the media companies in this country. It has been said a thousand times before, but they need to embrace this technology, not try to dunk it, and certainly they shouldn’t attempt to stop it by threatening the people that put money into their pockets and keep some of these politicians in office.