Now wait just a friggen minute....

[iamaelephant]

Let's get one thing straight before I start my rant - I like to support artists. I buy DVD movies and TV series, I own loads of CDs and I never pirate software.

In the past I have tended to download individual songs and, on occasion, full albums. I'm not proud of it, but the idea that I could so easily jump on the net and have a song I wanted within minutes was just too enticing. Well now that New Zealand finally has a decent online music store ( http://www.digirama.co.nz ) I have decided it's time I start paying for ALL of my music.

Historically I have always supported DRM, despite having had no experience with it. I got angry when people complained about DRM when it was obvious that in 99% of the cases people were just angry that their piracy was getting harder to get away with. So recently I have spent a fair bit of money on this cool website (about $100 in a week). I was reorganising my music today and right-clicked one of my new songs and went to properties, and what do I see? I can only sync this item to my MP3 player 2 more times!

My player is only 2gb, which means it doesn't fit all of my music. This means that when that number reaches zero, I can no longer delete it from my player, or I'll never be able to copy it back on. That is fvcking bullsh!t! I like the fact that everything on my PC is now legal, and I'm angry that I will have to resort to illegal measures to circumvent this ridiculous restriction. I'm especially angry because the reason I love buying music online is because it's just so damn easy to do. It's easier than pirating, which is what makes it appealing. Now I haven't done a lot of research into it yet, but from what I've heard I will have to burn these files to CD then rip them back to my HDD to strip the DRM. Legally downloading music is no longer easy and seems less appealing (aside from the fact that now I have to spend more money on CD-Rs).

This makes me just so damn angry. What is the point of this restriction? Not everyone has a massive 20gb+ player! :frown:

 

[EightySix Four]

DRM only screws over the consumers who actually purchase the music. The actual pirates get around it so fast it doesn't matter.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: crazySOB297
DRM only screws over the consumers who actually purchase the music. The actual pirates get around it so fast it doesn't matter.

Yup. Its a sad truth.

 

[iamaelephant]

You're not wrong. I feel like I've been screwed for trying to get all of my music legit. I'm still going to do it because I want to support artists, but I'm not happy about it. It's PlayForSure DRM for what it's worth. I'd ask for help in circumventing the sync restriction but that would probably be frowned upon on this board. I will search Google myself

 

[EightySix Four]

Buy it, then download it the "other" way, now you have a clean conscious cause you paid, and you have a non-drm file you can do whatever you want with.


edited for ban avoidance

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
You're not wrong. I feel like I've been screwed for trying to get all of my music legit. I'm still going to do it because I want to support artists, but I'm not happy about it. It's PlayForSure DRM for what it's worth. I'd ask for help in circumventing the sync restriction but that would probably be frowned upon on this board. I will search Google myself

You should buy CDs and rip them yourself if you want to support the artist. That way you won't get DRM'ed files.

 

[CKent]

Copy protection has always screwed the legitimate consumer and nobody else.

And by purchasing DRM'd music, you've basically said "Hey guys, want some money? Violate my rights like I'm an effeminate white guy in jail and you're my big roommate, Bubba. I love that stuff, I'll pay you lots of cash and I'll keep it coming in the future on a regular basis." If you were in their position, what would you do and continue to do into the future? That's right...

People really need to be more principled.

 

[Ameesh]

typically the device holds the license for the music indefinitely once the license is on the device it doesn't go away unless the device is somehow reset so you can always copy the music file back. Most mainstream music stores will redeliver the licenses to you as well. i dont know about stores in new zealand though

i think you are working on false information

 

[doze]

The easy way is to burn it to a CD then rip that CD.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: doze
The easy way is to purchase the CD then rip that CD.

fixed... burning downloaded music to cd then re-ripping only increases the quality loss, however (un)noticeable. might as well purchase the cd and rip straight from there, so you have minimal quality loss.

 

[UncleWai]

Buy used CDs.

 

[iamaelephant]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
typically the device holds the license for the music indefinitely once the license is on the device it doesn't go away unless the device is somehow reset so you can always copy the music file back. Most mainstream music stores will redeliver the licenses to you as well. i dont know about stores in new zealand though

i think you are working on false information

That doesn't seem to be the case. I just tried syncing one of my files again and now it's down to 1 more sync

Edit - ah, it seems that you are right after all. I accidently sync'd to the wrong folder on the device. As long as I keep the same folder structure I can sync back and forward indefinitely. Hopefully I don't get too much grief when I try to format or upgrade my computer in the future.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Edit - ah, it seems that you are right after all. I accidently sync'd to the wrong folder on the device. As long as I keep the same folder structure I can sync back and forward indefinitely. Hopefully I don't get too much grief when I try to format or upgrade my computer in the future.

You will have to call microsoft to get a key when you do that.

 

[iamaelephant]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Edit - ah, it seems that you are right after all. I accidently sync'd to the wrong folder on the device. As long as I keep the same folder structure I can sync back and forward indefinitely. Hopefully I don't get too much grief when I try to format or upgrade my computer in the future.

You will have to call microsoft to get a key when you do that.

The website I use has an email address you can contact, hopefully it won't be too much drama when the time comes. If I end up with headaches when I go to do that then I will certainly remove the DRM, if I haven't done it already.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Edit - ah, it seems that you are right after all. I accidently sync'd to the wrong folder on the device. As long as I keep the same folder structure I can sync back and forward indefinitely. Hopefully I don't get too much grief when I try to format or upgrade my computer in the future.

You will have to call microsoft to get a key when you do that.

you dont call microsoft you call the company you bought the songs from.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: crazySOB297
DRM only screws over the consumers who actually purchase the music. The actual pirates get around it so fast it doesn't matter.

Yup. Its a sad truth.

HD-DVD / Blu-Ray being the most recent example(s).

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Edit - ah, it seems that you are right after all. I accidently sync'd to the wrong folder on the device. As long as I keep the same folder structure I can sync back and forward indefinitely. Hopefully I don't get too much grief when I try to format or upgrade my computer in the future.

You will have to call microsoft to get a key when you do that.

you dont call microsoft you call the company you bought the songs from.

Could be Microsoft (Zune).

 

[Atheus]

There are 12 stages of DRM grief:

1. anger
2. anger
3. anger
4. anger
5. anger
6. anger
7. anger
8. anger
9. anger
10. anger
11. anger
12. hacking

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: Atheus
There are 12 stages of DRM grief:

1. anger
2. anger
3. anger
4. anger
5. anger
6. anger
7. anger
8. anger
9. anger
10. anger
11. anger
12. hacking

I've only got 4 steps for DRM:

1. :|
2. Hacking
3. :music:
4. :beer:

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
You're not wrong. I feel like I've been screwed for trying to get all of my music legit. I'm still going to do it because I want to support artists, but I'm not happy about it. It's PlayForSure DRM for what it's worth. I'd ask for help in circumventing the sync restriction but that would probably be frowned upon on this board. I will search Google myself

You should buy CDs and rip them yourself if you want to support the artist. That way you won't get DRM'ed files.

Winnar.

I have yet to buy a song online.

edit: furthermore - when possible, I buy the CD through/on the artist's website, ensuring a little more gets to the artist.

 

[Tiamat]

thats why ive been forced to buy cds once again. I just hate the headache with the quality of the download, and the # of times you can transfer to your player...

 

[us3rnotfound]

I don't buy an album for a song I'll listen to for a week then forget about for a long while.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

artists don't get a lot of money from CD sales. they get most of their money from concerts. to support the artists, go to their concerts, since the people making most of the money from music sales are the music execs/studios/etc, and not the artists themselves.

don't quote me on this though. I either heard this on the radio, or read it somewhere. I can be wrong.

 

[Soybomb]

I hate that if you pop a real movie in the dvd player you're stuck watching all sorts of pre-views or using the fast forward button because they're disable the top menu or next chapter buttons. It certainly is negative reinforcement for me.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
You're not wrong. I feel like I've been screwed for trying to get all of my music legit. I'm still going to do it because I want to support artists, but I'm not happy about it. It's PlayForSure DRM for what it's worth. I'd ask for help in circumventing the sync restriction but that would probably be frowned upon on this board. I will search Google myself

You should buy CDs and rip them yourself if you want to support the artist. That way you won't get DRM'ed files.

You should buy 2nd hand CDs and rip them yourself so you can screw the RIAA out of their money and support your local economy via taxation.

If you want to support the artist, buy merchandise directly from their website and go to their concerts whenever possible. They'll unlikely see a whole dollar worth of profit from a single CD sale.