Hey suckers! Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they’re repaying your honesty by taking away your music. Unless you go through a bunch of hoops (that you may never find out about, if you’ve changed email addresses or if you’re not a very technical person), your music will no longer be playable after October 9th. The statement:
” If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer.
Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer. ”
But don’t worry, this will never ever happen to all those other DRM companies — unlike little fly-by-night mom-and-pop operations like Wal*Mart, the DRM companies are rock-ribbed veterans of commerce and industry, sure to be here for a thousand years. So go on buying your Audible books, your iTunes DRM songs, your Zune media, your EA games… None of these companies will ever disappear, nor will the third-party DRM suppliers they use. They are as solid and permanent as Commodore, Atari, the Soviet Union, the American credit system and the Roman Empire.
Boy, the entertainment industry sure makes a good case for ripping them off, huh? Buy your media and risk having it confiscated by a DRM-server shutdown. Take it for free and keep it forever.
This doesn’t affect me personally since I don’t patronize Walmart, but for people who want to do the right thing….this is your reward.
Mwahahaha, serves them right.
I don’t understand company’s that are stop there DRM Service can’t just keep the servers up for like 10 years or give the Users a Mp3 Version or something.
The only people who should feel they should buy DRM’d music are people in the industry. The reason so many people rip-off music is because the music industry practically forces them to. Even internet radio should be free. The internet radio stations should have the same deal as regular broadcast stations. If the industry won’t cooperate, then they should relocate offshore and the hell with them.
Sounds like you just _did_ patronize WalMart!
patronize:
2. to behave in an offensively condescending manner
They get what they pay for.
Any and all transactions with WalMart should be punished.
Consider too.. Since WalMart makes it a point to buy only from the largest and cheapest volume-heavy distributors, the first waves of infected dairy-derived products from China will be sold through WalMart.
Attention WalMart shoppers: We hope your children like hospitals!
The sad thing is that the vast majority of people who bought the DRMed crap from Wal-Mart won’t even notice they were screwed.
These are not the type of people who do a lot of technical stuff with their PCs like back up data or transfer files. Their computers will die, they’ll lose all of their data, including their music, they’ll buy new computers, and they won’t even think about how they were screwed.
Ignorance is bliss.
Would you re-read the article, including the letter from walmart? This thing has been going around all weekend and people don’t seem to be interpreting it correctly. Walmart is transitioning to DRM free music and they are telling you that you must archive your own DRM files and not rely on their server for archiving. They have stressed that it will continue to transfer and run on your devices, provided you have the file. They will no longer serve it. This is my interpretation.
#8 “This is my interpretation.”
Yes, but your interpretation doesn’t cause FUD.
#8. Like SN said…Your interpretation is correct for technically savvy people …not the typical WalMart shopper.
After reading more about this I think I may be full of it. I can’t tell. Some site’s interpretations of “backing up your files” means burning them as wav files and then re digitizing DRM free with a loss of quality. They claim that is the only way to access the music if you have to reinstall or you want to put it on a device that was not authorized before walmart’s DRM server is taken down. If walmart’s ‘back up your files’ is a euphemism for that process then I guess I’m on board with the criticism.
Sounds vaguely like when Microsoft closed down their service (actually they sold it to Rhapsody). I didn’t carry my account through though – I had discovered good ol’ Amazon and their no DRM policy by then. Goes to show that W*lm*rt can’t and won’t do it all.
@RTFM
That is exactly what they are saying. They aren’t serving the music, they’re serving the DRM. The magic key that allows you to prove it’s you and you paid for the music. Google did it, too, but they refunded everyone (who they could find, and they went to some lengths to find you) their money.
WalMart is screwing it’s customers again.
Furthermore, why are these guys made of teflon? People just keep on going there even though Target is CHEAPER and higher quality! Anybosy remember Sam Walton’s promise to always buy American made goods? Find any American made stuff at your local Walmart, ’cause mine doesn’t have any. People spend their money there even though every study shows that wages IN GENERAL in an area go DOWN when Walmart comes in. These people could increase their incomes by simply putting Walmart out of business. Remember Sam promising they would NEVER build a Walmart in a community that didn’t want them? Check with Galena, IL; they fought tooth and nail to keep Walmart out and only succeeded in making sure Walmart didn’t get ANY tax incentives or benefits for that store. Small comfort, but it’s something. And kudos to Galena for fighting.
Now, back to the DRM problem. Why do you suppose the RIAA and the MPAA think screwing their customers is good business? ‘Cause it is. I mean, look at Walmart–they’re making a mint doing it.
WE HAVE TO STOP IT! We have to refuse to buy from vendors who screw us. And I’m NOT advocating stealing through P2P. Just learn to live with what you can buy unDRMed. And we gotta stop giving Walmart our money.
Buy? what is ‘buy’?
J/P=?
Once again, bit torrents and file sharing are shown to be the right answer. Best selection, best price. Nuff said.
Attention Whale-Mart Shoppers! If you bought music from us, well, you’re fucked! Learn how to download music for free from your kids for fucks sake.
500gb of music is how many songs? Oh, about 20,000. Thanks. Just wondering. I feel good.
1. I have never paid for a MP3 file in my life.
2. I know that 500GB of songs is about 20,000 songs.
3. Oh, nothing.
4. Music companies, get in line behind AIG, WaMu, and Obama.
I lost the licenses to over three dozen DRM’d .wma’s I’d bought from Wal-Mart online when I moved the songs and their licenses to a new hard drive on the same PC. I was unable to play them, even after many attempts to renew the licenses I’d already paid for, having saved all the confirmation emails for proof. Wal-Mart said my only remedy was to download and pay for the songs a second time.
I vowed right then and there to never purchase DRM’d music again. I’ll buy their .mp3s only as a last resort. Otherwise it’s LimeWire for me.
I am so glad I made a decision to never buy anything from a Wal-Mart or Sam’s again! I am no longer a patron of their fuckery.
I bought some face powder while out of town on a trip since I forgot mine. It turned out to be poor quality so I tried to return it. I got denied for not keeping the package. So I took it up with the manufacturer who told me to return it to Wal-Mart and they were dumbfounded saying they had never heard of a store not accepting their products. The policy that the cashier cited was not even up on their wall but I didn’t feel like arguing with one uneducated poor bastard after another. Life is too short.
Oh and the sad women that have now been labeled Wal-Mart Moms in this election year. That is exactly what is wrong with America.
I am so surprised at how many people think Wal-Mart saves them money. I can get groceries cheaper any day of the week and I can get clothes at comparable prices that don’t look like shit after the first wash. I don’t know what the appeal of Wal-Mart is to people anymore than those cookie cutter homes in the suburban sprawl.
I went through this when Urge was bought out by Rhapsody. Lost a 600 dollar library that I was ignant enough to think would last. Rhapsody’s only response was gee guess you’ll have to buy them all over again. Hmpf, yeah, just not at your store. Been DRM free ever since.
I would never buy anything at Wal*Mart that I didn’t consider to be a “throw-away”. Gum, paper towels, maybe even an extension cord.
Anything I plan to keep, I go to a real store.
Hard to figure out who the biggest scum bags are. The record companies, RIAA, the DRM writers or the people that steal 20,000 songs and brag about.
Why does anyone shop there to begin with?
#24 because some people like to live in ignorant bliss.
i get my music from limewire. if i really like a couple of the songs oh gasp get a music cd.
I never have, nor ever will buy online any music or videos that are DRM’d in any way. It just does not seem to be worth the hassle. Why should I have to go and beg someone to use something that I have paid for.
What if a song you want is not sold by one service? Now you have to keep track of multiple DRM schemes. I we regularly use 4 different kinds of MP3 players in our house. You would have to try and figure out if a particular song would work with which player.
NFW.
I have purchased some songs from Itunes, deleted them, and then acquired my own DRM free copy of the song. I feel it is important to support your favorite artisits so they can make a living at it. But I will not pay 10-20 bux for a CD with 1 or 2 good songs.
Don
MUST … RESIST … URGE…TO … VISIT … PIRATE BAY … FOR … ALL … MY… RECORDING NEEDS … .
MUST … RESIST … .
Hey try ’em. You’ll like ’em.
AND there are are several other sites out there offering the same
crapstuff. DRM free.I bought some music from them a couple of years ago. This is really not the big of deal because they stop severing the DRM keys 30 days after you buy the music. If you wanted to move you music to a new computer after that time period you had to call them and have them to give you another 30 day window to re-authorize the music.
#27 “MUST … RESIST … URGE…TO … VISIT”
LOL!
#22, #24: It’s rather difficult to shop elsewhere when Wal-Mart kills off the local hardware stores, appliance stores, clothes shops, office supply stores, supermarkets, etc. and it’s the only game left in town. My main drag is now a ghost town thanks to Wal-Mart barging in in 1995. 🙁