Wal-Mart is now selling digital music downloads on its Web site without the customary copy-protection technology that limits where consumers can play the songs.
Wal-Mart said it would sell the “DRM-free” MP3 downloads of music by artists like the Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse and Maroon 5 for 94 cents per track or $9.22 per album. It said the new format let customers play music on almost any device, including iPods, iPhones and Microsoft’s Zune portable media player.
Of course, you can buy and download your copy of John Wayne reciting “The Pledge of Allegiance” only if your computer is running Windows – or so says the Wal-Mart website.
Actually, I prefer “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” – got it at iTunes.
I won’t be impressed by any online music site until one is able to offer DRM-free AC/DC tracks.
#2 LOL
Well, at least it’s a start. Many people I’ve talked to are scared silly into giving their credit card # to MP3Sparks.com, but definitely trust Apple.
Yet it’s so easy to setup a pre-paid Mastercard, why, many teens are doing it now.
This is actually getting kind of funny. Micro$oft spent a lot of time and money screwing up Vista, partly to include DRM.
If everyone stops using DRM, Vista is going to be a slow, clunky, memory hog for no reason at all – except the usual – Micro$oft programmers.
Only because China hasn’t started selling music, yet.
#4
Basically, a standard M$ OS.
>>If everyone stops using DRM, Vista is going to be a
>>slow, clunky, memory hog for no reason at all
Well, at least for a brief moment in time it had a reason. Every version of a Microsoft operating system since DOS 3.x has been a slow, clunky, memory hog for no reason at all, right from the get-go.
And hey, Vista has that cool rotating donut instead of an hourglass for those periods when you sit there with your thumb up your ass waiting for something to happen. That’s worth buying a new $2500 laptop for, right?
I lost 60 DRM’d .wma’s when I upgraded my hard drive because Windoze thought I had a whole new computer, even with my backed-up licenses. As soon as Wal-Mart sells ALL of their downloads without DRM, then I’ll be happy.Until then, it’s LimeWire for me.
>>Every version of a Microsoft operating system since DOS 3.x has >>been a slow, clunky, memory hog for no reason at all,
I absolutely agree. I used Dos 3.1 for a very long time. Back then, I thought mice were the stupidest thing ever invented and I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to do things in a slower and clunkier fashion than I could accomplish with a few quick and simple text commands.
I guess I was wrong.
By the way, when you’re sitting there with your thumb up your ass waiting for something to happen, the drone is usually calling various mother ships to make sure the real owners of your computer are getting paid for whatever happens to be happening. As Angel said, “a standard M$ OS”.
If you can manage without a supply of the same “run and shoot” games in endless minor variations, you can’t go too far wrong with Ubuntu and Open Office. Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd. are very professional and have a great attitude towards life and Linux.