(IDG News Service) Yahoo Inc. has become the latest company to abandon customers who bought tracks from its music store encoded with digital rights management (DRM), drawing fire from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
On Sept. 30, Yahoo will shut down the servers that are needed to reauthorize music purchased from its failed Unlimited Music Store if it is transferred to a new PC, Yahoo said in an e-mail to customers. The rule is designed to slow music piracy. Re-authorization is also needed if a customer upgrades his PC's operating system.
The only work-around for customers wanting to listen to their music on a new or upgraded computer after this date is to burn the tracks to a CD and then reload them on a PC.
Those with extensive music collections would incur the cost of buying blank CDs and spending time to transfer the music, wrote EFF staff attorney Corynne McSherry in a blog post.
Even though Yahoo suggested that process to customers to preserve their music, it raises legal issues..................
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110727&source=NLT_PM&nlid=8
On Sept. 30, Yahoo will shut down the servers that are needed to reauthorize music purchased from its failed Unlimited Music Store if it is transferred to a new PC, Yahoo said in an e-mail to customers. The rule is designed to slow music piracy. Re-authorization is also needed if a customer upgrades his PC's operating system.
The only work-around for customers wanting to listen to their music on a new or upgraded computer after this date is to burn the tracks to a CD and then reload them on a PC.
Those with extensive music collections would incur the cost of buying blank CDs and spending time to transfer the music, wrote EFF staff attorney Corynne McSherry in a blog post.
Even though Yahoo suggested that process to customers to preserve their music, it raises legal issues..................
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110727&source=NLT_PM&nlid=8
