Remember Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM (digital rights management) technology?
Well, it doesn’t play for sure on the new Microsoft Zune.
Word is (though I can’t find a link right now) that Microsoft spokesbots are actually recommending that Zune users break Microsoft’s own DRM (and by extension, violate the DMCA) in order to use PlaysForSure media with their new device.
So, okay… even though they’ve shot themselves squarely in the foot with this latest DRM debacle, maybe it’s a sign that Microsoft is finally seeing the light and will step back and rethink their self-defeating attempts at DRM?
Nope. The Zune actually takes DRM a step further by virally infecting your own non-DRM files with a whole new flavor of DRM.
You say your song doesn’t have any DRM already, you wrote it yourself and you just want to share it with your friends? Doesn’t matter, it gets DRM’d automatically, you can’t shut it off or prevent it. You say your media is covered by a Creative Commons license? Doesn’t matter, Microsoft’s new DRM violates that license.
From the blog of Cesar Mendendez, Microsoft employee, aka Zune Insider :
“I made a song. I own it. How come, when I wirelessly send it to a girl I want to impress, the song has 3 days/3 plays?” Good question. There currently isn’t a way to sniff out what you are sending, so we wrap it all up in DRM. We can’t tell if you are sending a song from a known band or your own home recording so we default to the safety of encoding. And besides, she’ll come see you three days later…
The good news is, the more ridiculous Microsoft manages to make DRM and the DMCA look, the less seriously anyone can actually take it.