DRM claims more victims as Microsoft fails its music users

If you bought copy-protected music from MSN, you're being screwed

DRM (Digital Rights Management) added to music is a really bad idea and you should never buy DRM-protected files, unless you have more money than sense (yes, iTunes user, that means you). The latest people to suffer are the ones who bought copy-protected songs from the long-defunct Microsoft MSN music service. They've had a note from from MSN's Rob Bennett that says:

So you can authorise your MSN music to play on five machines, but you won't be able to authorise it on future machines. Once your current systems die, your music dies too -- unless you take Bennett's advice and burn it to CD then re-rip it. This isn't an ideal solution. Unfortunately it's the only one Microsoft offers.

It seems to me this is a shabby way for Microsoft to treat people who have bought Music from Microsoft to run on a Microsoft platform.

One alternative would have been to transfer license support to another Microsoft-based library. (MSN Music was actually Peter Gabriel's OD2, which pioneered online music stores before iTunes. OD2 got bought by Loudeye, which sold it on to Nokia for $60 million.) At worst, the same songs are probably available on Microsoft's own Zune marketplace.

An even better alternative would have been to give these former MSN Music users new files: either ones protected with a different DRM or, preferably, DRM-free. Microsoft could have done a deal with Real Networks, Amazon or even Apple to provide a one-to-one replacement service. Sure, it would have cost them, but not enough to make a dent in Microsoft profits running at $1 billion a month.

No music format lasts forever, and you probably have 45/78 vinyl, audio cassettes/VHS tapes or even LaserDisc/Elcaset/DAT/MiniDisc music you can no longer play. (I still have some stuff taped on 7 inch reels, and someone, somewhere, even has an uplayable DCC or Digital Compact Cassette tape. We're still looking for him.)

But digital files should be able to survive longer than physical formats. Instead, because of DRM, they aren't even lasting as long.

Update: CNet has talked to Rob Bennett, who says that "that continuing to support the DRM keys was impractical, that the issue only affects a 'small number' of people and that focusing exclusively on Zune was the best way to go. He also noted that it wasn't Microsoft's decision to wrap music into digital rights management."

Fine. If it's a small number of customers, you can afford to treat them right. Google backed down and refunded people's money in a similar case affecting video downloads, and thanked us for helping them see the light. Go thou and do likewise.

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