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drm posts

Dev finds Windows Marketplace DRM severely lacking, easily circumventable

by Darren Murph posted Oct 8th 2009 @ 8:36PM

Microsoft's Windows Phones just left the chute a few days ago, and already it seems that ye old DRM is getting talked about -- and not in a good way. According to one Chainfire over at XDA-Developers, the so-called "copy protection" involved in keeping applications in place rather than strewn across a neighborhood of handsets is a pitiful joke, requiring just five minutes of tinkering to save the CAB files that the Marketplace app downloads to a separate folder. In other words, that relocated CAB file could be distributed to all of your friends, turning a single purchase into freeware for as many people as you know (or don't know, even). So, Marketplace devs -- does that make you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside, or what?

[Thanks, GreeKNastY]

Nokia Comes with Music US launch smartly pushed back to 2010

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 1st 2009 @ 4:58AM

Not that most Americans could care, but Nokia is pushing back the US launch of its DRM-laden Comes with Music service into 2010. CWM, you'll recall, is Nokia's "free" all-you-can-eat music service that bundles the 12-18 month music subscription cost into the inflated handset price -- although like any DRM music scheme, solutions already exist to break the CWM shackles. The delay is probably a wise move considering the weak state of Nokia's US partnerships required to offset consumer costs, lukewarm response to its latest handsets, and the fact that most US consumers share a broad distaste for DRM music. We'd rather see Nokia launch late but with a compelling proposition than launch now in blind adherence to a timeline.

Vodafone's music catalog goes DRM-free for mobiles and PCs

by Darren Murph posted Mar 12th 2009 @ 9:36AM

We were wondering (seriously, it has been on our conscience at night) which carrier would be the first to go completely DRM-free in respect to its music catalog, and now Vodafone has stepped in to claim said throne. This week, the operator has inked deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music to bring tunes to handsets and PCs sans any nasty DRM, and for those who already downloaded DRM-laced files in the past, they'll be able to upgrade to DRM-free without a charge so long as they do it soon. And to think -- something like this would've been stopped cold at the drawing board by record label execs just a few years back. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

Nokia aiming for DRM-free implementation of Comes With Music

by Darren Murph posted Mar 2nd 2009 @ 7:33PM

Make no mistake -- there's no need to wait for Nokia and its partner studios to implement a DRM-free version of Comes With Music to enjoy your subscription tracks on any device you want, but at least the handset maker -- along with those in control of the jams -- are working towards a legal way to strip your downloads of that pesky rights management stuff. According to an article on the matter from Singapore today, Adam Mirabella, director of Global Digital Music Retail at Nokia, had this to say: "We have dialogs going with all of our partners and Digital Rights Management-free (DRM-free) is also on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music." No further details were spilled, but we'd say that's clear cut enough to get one's hopes up. Just don't bank on this going down anytime soon -- you should know there's lots of red tape to cut before those CmW tunes are freed of their shackles.

[Thanks, Masa]

Tunebite lets you enjoy Nokia's Comes with Music service, DRM-free

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Dec 10th 2008 @ 7:11PM

Not that you'd be interested, because DRM isn't a clumsy or expensive solution to a problem that exists largely (or even solely) in the heads of the film and music industries, but a new version of Tunebite is out, and among its many features is the ability to make unprotected dupes of tracks downloaded from Nokia's Comes With Music service. This isn't the "crack" everyone's talking about -- there's nothing new about software that records protected audio off the sound card -- but this package does so at speeds of up to 54x. Not bad, eh? But please, don't use it. Kanye needs our money if he's going to keep scarfing up all those awesome gadgets.

[Via Electricpig]

Nokia's Comes with Music service launches next month -- UK first

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 2nd 2008 @ 2:15AM

Nokia's "free," all-you-can-eat, music subscription service is set to world premier in the UK next month before hitting continental Europe and Asia in 2009. Nokia already has Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music on board and plans to have EMI signed before launch -- in total, Nokia expects to offer some 2.1 million tracks at launch. While touted as free, the service costs will be baked into the price of Nokia's pre-pay 5310 XpressMusic Comes With Music Edition handset (currently priced between £70-£80 for the pay-as-you-go, non-CwM handset) when purchased though the UK's Carphone Warehouse. You must then purchase another CwM-compatible device at the end of the year in order to continue downloading tracks. For those not wishing to re-up with Nokia, your 5310 CwM edition phone will continue to make / receive calls and text messages and, like your computer, continue to playback all those DRM-wrapped WMA tracks -- they will not play anywhere else. While the approach is interesting, the DRM-enabled time-bomb and device lock-in makes the entire model sound fatally flawed to us -- though we're sure that'll be hacked away soon enough. Come on Amazon, now is the time to take your MP3 store global and show these fools how it's done.

Update: Expect the service to launch at, or shortly after, a Nokia Comes With Music press event scheduled for October 2nd.

[Via mocoNews]

Read -- FT
Read -- Guardian
Read -- Nokia press release

Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Arena: 1 million, DRM-free songs on Monday

by Thomas Ricker posted Aug 22nd 2008 @ 3:07AM

What was just a footnote to 2007 has finally come to fruition. Sony Ericsson just went live with details on the August 25th launch of its PlayNow Arena media download site. Initially the site will offer 1 million, DRM-free songs (ramping up to 5 million) from Sony BMG, Warner Music, and EMI. It will also offer games, ringtones, applications, and themes for your mobile downloading pleasures. Other European countries will come on board later this year before it goes global in 2009. Tracks are expected to be "on par" with Apple's iTunes ($0.99 / €0.99) pricing but will cost SEK9 (about $1.43, credit card required) for the Nordic launch. Full press release after the break.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Arena: 1 million, DRM-free songs on Monday

Rhapsody ditches (some) DRM, selling MP3s with Verizon and Yahoo

by Thomas Ricker posted Jun 30th 2008 @ 1:27AM

Rhapsody, the digital love-child of Real Networks and MTV, is best known for its DRM'd subscription music service. As such, the globe's population of sheep-white-earbudded, sidewalk zombies have been completely off limits to its charms. Until today. While its DRM'd subscription deals remain in place, Rhapsody is now offering unprotected MP3 downloads via its Rhapsody MP3 store and via partners including Verizon's VCAST over-the-air service and Yahoo. We're talking 5 million DRM-free tracks (generally priced at $0.99 per song, $9.99 per album) from Indies and the four majors. Uniquely, all tracks can be previewed in full before downloading. Rhapsody VP, Neil Smith said, "We're no longer competing with the iPod, we're embracing it." Perhaps, but Rhapsody's planned $50 million marketing assault on iTunes with the help of MTV's TV networks doesn't exactly make them best of friends. We're not DRM-free across the industry yet (in fact, far from it), but things are certainly moving in that direction.

Update: Signup now with the Rhapsody MP3 store and get a $10 credit which can be applied to your first album.

[Via Reuters]

Nokia: Comes with Music tracks are WMA 192kbps and 128kbps

by Thomas Ricker posted Dec 12th 2007 @ 1:31AM

Slowly, ever so slowly, a picture is beginning to form of Nokia's all-you-can eat, free-for-1-year, keep-your-songs-for-life, Comes with Music (CWM) service. We know what it's not -- Universal's Total Music (the similarities are just a coincidence) -- and now we know more about what it is. The following details were just confirmed to us directly by Nokia:

Audio is wrapped in an old-school, WMA DRM wrapper
Songs can be burned to CD only after purchasing an upgrade of undisclosed cost
Nokia has not announced any CWM devices, yet
You can download music directly to your CWM device or computer using a unique PIN
Songs will play only on your CWM device and the computer you registered with your CWM account
Oh, and tracks will "typically" be delivered in 192kbps, while "older tracks may be delivered at 128kbps"

Understandably, Nokia was not willing to discuss the financial arrangement they are offering the labels. There's also no mention of registering the music to new devices after the phone or PC gives up the ghost. But come on Nokia, surely you can convince 'em to drop the DRM by mid-2008, right? There are plenty of places to hide any added costs.

Nokia: our Comes with Music service is not Universal's Total Music

by Thomas Ricker posted Dec 7th 2007 @ 3:21AM

Remember Nokia's utopian / not-so-free and crippled "free" Comes with Music offering? We've been in contact with Nokia who'd like to clarify the service. According to Nokia, Comes with Music is, "completely independent from the Universal music store." Nokia further distances themselves by stating that, "Universal was simply the first of these to publicly sign on. The fact that there are some similarities shows how the industry is thinking about the future of digital music - but its not a sign of any direct linkage between the offerings." So, now we know what it isn't, but we still don't know exactly what it is. Regardless, anything can happen between now and the launch in "mid 2008" -- an eternity on a digital music evolution timeline. Perhaps the lack of detail is Nokia's way of farming public opinion before the details are announced. Wouldn't be a first.

Nokia adds Microsoft's PlayReady DRM to upcoming devices

by Joshua Topolsky posted Aug 6th 2007 @ 10:23AM

Nokia appears to be making some interesting moves as of late. Following rumors that the company will hazard a foray into the world of digital music sales, the Finnish mobile manufacturer has signed a deal with Microsoft to utilize its PlayReady DRM scheme. The technology, which is file-format-independent, is specifically targeted for use with mobile devices, and is intended to strengthen "security" on a wide variety of content such as music, videos, games, ringtones, and images. The DRM is backwards compatible with the existing Windows Media 10 file management, and will be implemented on upcoming S60 and Series 40 Nokia devices beginning in 2008. It seems at least somewhat possible that this arrangement could be related to the recent whisperings of Nokia's iTunes-esque plans, as DRM has already been hinted at for the supposed forthcoming service. Perhaps on August 29th all will be revealed -- but only Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo knows for sure.

Rogers Wireless banning MP3 ringtones on its handsets?

by Brian White posted Jul 18th 2007 @ 3:40PM

It's the situation most of us love to hate: we buy that new, shiny handset with full MP3 capability to supplant that fully-fledged, big-gig DAP only to find out that MP3 files -- as clips or songs -- can't be used as ringtones. Sure, there are sometimes workarounds and hacks, but should anyone really have to go through all that? Music-based handset crippling may be coming to Canada's Rogers Wireless, as word on the street is that phones sold by the carrier, like the Nokia 5300, won't allow non-DRMed MP3 files as ringtones. We find this ludicrous on music-centric handset, but reports are that the requirement was at the behest of the music industry (who else). If you're a Rogers subscriber and are locked out of using your own homebrew MP3 clips as ringtones, we'll take it that you're miffed, big time. We gotta go DRM those MP3 files of some barking dogs we have, so catch ya later.

[Via mocoNews and BoingBoing]

Microsoft announces another new DRM: PlayReady

by Ryan Block posted Feb 12th 2007 @ 6:04PM

Amidst the aggressive and pugnacious consumer discussions over DRM, today Microsoft introduced yet another: PlayReady. Aimed at the mobile space, PlayReady DRM takes their "open" (i.e. platform) DRM strategy to the next level, by providing subscription, rental, pay-per-view, preview and "super-distribution" (huh? maybe they mean authorized redistribution) digital rights management to not only their own media formats -- as has been done exclusively in the past -- but to other codec standards, too, including AAC, and H.264. PlayReady will be backwards compatible with WM DRM 10, so your Vongo movies or Napster tracks, for example, should still authorize and play back. But now a new crop of carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Telefónica, O2, and Bouygues, are signed up with considerations for things that might be done with the DRM; of course, none of those other standards matter much if Microsoft isn't going to license PlayReady to the other vendors and software platforms that use formats like H.264 (and not WMA / WMV), but no announcements were made regarding non-carrier licensees, or whether PlayReady would make its way to the desktop, too.

SK Telecom fined for incompatible music-playing handsets

by Darren Murph posted Dec 22nd 2006 @ 8:51PM

While Verizon had its own go 'round with the law about crippling Bluetooth functionality on its phones, now South Korea's SK Telecom is facing a stiff fine of its own due to antitrust violations. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) tagged the telecommunications giant with a $356,070 fine after taking issue with programming installed on handsets that only allowed users to play back music purchased through the firm's "Melon" music service. Interestingly, the report claims that "MP3 files obtained legally through different online sources cannot work on SK Telecom licensed phones, forcing MP3 file users to purchase only MP3 files from Melon," which leads us to believe that MP3 -- at least in this instance -- refers to any digital audio file. Nevertheless, the company now has 60 days to correct the problem and allow users to rock out to whatever tunes they so desire, so those affected by this snafu should be good to go come February.

[Via Techdirt]

NTT DoCoMo, Microsoft to form music download service

by Marc Perton posted May 11th 2006 @ 6:22PM

NTT DoCoMo plans to work with Microsoft to build a music service based on Windows Media. The service would not allow direct downloads, but would instead require music to be transferred from a PC to a cellphone. The service would work with Windows Media audio from over 100 providers, and will launch this summer on the F902iS (pictured), one of DoCoMo's recently announced HSDPA-capable phones.