NOTE: This is a follow-up to our email titled "Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases" from 9/26/08.

Based on feedback from our customers, we have decided to maintain our digital rights management (DRM) servers for the present time. What this means to you is that our existing service continues and there is no action required on your part. Our customer service team will continue to assist with DRM issues for protected windows media audio (WMA) files purchased from Walmart.com.

While our customer support team is available to assist you with any issues, we continue to recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you insure access to them from any personal computer at any time in the future.

We appreciate your support and patience as we work to provide the best service possible to you. As we move forward with our 100% MP3 store, we'll continue to update you with key decisions regarding our service and your account via email.

Thank you for using Walmart MP3 Music Downloads.
The Walmart Digital Music Team

They could still turn it off in January, or next summer, or hell, the day after Thanksgiving next month, and we're not naive enough to think Walmart will follow Yahoo's footsteps and offer DRM-free replacement tracks, so take the extra time you've got to back up those tracks if you don't want to be at Walmart's mercy in the future.

"Walmart has a change of heart, decides to maintain DRM servers" [Engadget]

"Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection — only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans" [BoingBoing]
(Photo: Kamoteus and Joe Mad)

"Amazon temporarily gags Spore critics, deletes and restores all customer reviews" [ArsTechnica] (Thanks to Nathan!)

From page 52 of the manual:

You may have multiple Spore accounts for each installation of the game.

However, here's what "EA_violet" wrote on the EA forums in response to complaints that players couldn't set up multiple accounts:

That section in the manual was a misprint and will be corrected in future printings of the manual. There is one Spore registration/account per game/serial code so you are correct in that you cannot make multiple accounts at this time.

We're among all those people who waited a long time for Spore to come out, and we're facepalming at how broken it is, all thanks to EA's misguided DRM implementation. This particular detail is notable for revealing that at some point in the past it was likely that the game allowed multiple accounts, and that this functionality was removed in order to tighten the DRM net.

forum.spore.com (Thanks to Sir Mildred Pierce!)
(Spore creature: Henjoness)

...the game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you'll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That's not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because "it's not financially feasible" to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.

And...

The DRM for the game utilizes securom which is essentially a virus that installs itself without warning when you install the game. There is no way to completely remove it without reformatting and it is constantly running in the background if not removed. Sucking up computer resources.

It also is overpriced. This is actually a RENTAL, not a bought game because it only lets you install 3 times.

And...

I logged on to buy this but now no way. I dont care if its the best game in the world, I'm not loading it onto my computer if it has DRM. No thank you, remove it and I'll buy version 2.0.

And...

I personally feel EA has crossed the line with what is considered an acceptable protection scheme. What they have done is essentially created a rental for the price of the full game, and after 3 activations you have to call up EA and beg them to reactivate the game. I for one am a computer enthusiast and format and upgrade regularly so I'd burn through the 3 install limit in about three months top and I REFUSE to have to call up any company and have to beg and prove that I rightfully am entitled to an install. As a paying customer I expect to be able to install the game infinite amounts of times on MY computer without any DRM disturbances. Whats worse is that this DRM considers any computer upgrade, BIOS update, and some patches as system change and thus requires an additional activation.

And...

Thanks to everyone who warned us about the DRM in this game. I'm interested in the game, but not interested enough to break my computer to play it.

And...

Too bad I can't play this game because of the horrible copyright protection scheme/malware called SecuROM which locks up my rig. It doesn't even keep the game from being pirated, so I don't know why EA treats its paying customers like criminals.

And...

I will not pay EA $50 to rent a game, period. DRM is dying, and its dragging good products down with it. Get a clue EA. The music industry did, now its your turn to face the fire.

And...

I was going to buy this game today but because of the DRM and a few other issues I will skip this game altogether. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to owning this game. EA is not helping Will Wright in any way.

You get the idea. Have these reviews convinced you to skip this game?

Spore [Amazon via Kotaku]

First, here's the official revised policy that Yahoo announced today, according to the Associated Press:

The company said Wednesday it is offering coupons on request for people to buy songs again through Yahoo's new partner, RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody. Those songs will be in the MP3 format, free of copy protection. Refunds are available for users who "have serious problems with this arrangement," Yahoo said.

John Healey at the Los Angeles Times' blog Bit Player published this additional information, which sounds like a hidden perk of the Yahoo Music Store closing:

Carrie Davis at Yahoo provided these nuggets of detail: if you're looking for a coupon or a refund, contact Yahoo's Customer Care department. There's no need for proof of purchase. The offer expires at the end of the year. By the way, coupons can be redeemed for any track at Rhapsody, not just the ones the customer purchased from Yahoo.

Of course, you'll have to explicitly request the coupons, then take the time to re-download your songs—or download new ones if you didn't like the ones you originally bought (although that's pretty shady, especially if you don't delete the DRM-wrapped ones)—so it's not the smoothest transition to DRM-free music. On the other hand, we're glad to see Yahoo isn't totally abandoning its customers after all.

"Yahoo offers coupons for music that stops working" [Associated Press] (Thanks to Chris!)
"Yahoo rethinks, offers refunds for DRM-wrapped songs" [Bit Player at Los Angeles Times]
(Photo: Getty)

It's a simple two-part process. First, you must transfer your authorized licenses here on the site. Second, you must download the transferred licenses onto your new Xbox 360.

Microsoft points out that if you've sent your Xbox 360 in for repair or replacement, "the licenses have already been transferred as part of the repair process, and you do not need to use the license transfer tool, but you may need to download the content again."

"Transferring Content Licenses to a New Console" (Thanks to Justin!)

RELATED
"UPDATE: Microsoft May Slowly Be Fixing Their Broken XBOX DRM"
"Replace Your XBOX 360? 'Sorry, We Can't Help You. Buy All Of Your Content A Second Time'"

jk writes:

You reported the initial DRM problems on this title but it's back...

Apparently the game Mass Effect PC version can only be installed 3 times, there are NO credits given back when you completely uninstall it..

They have been very dishonest about this. The consumer is crud at EA. Every single used disc for sale on ebay/amazon could be empty of installs and the buyer wouldn't know til they got it home..

He pointed us to a forum thread on Bioware's message board where one customer posted his attempt to get a straight answer of out EA's customer service reps.

As it been said in the Mass Effect tweakguide that if you uninstall Mass Effect you get an activation back. I decided to ask EA Support if that is true. The exact question is:

When uninstalling Mass Effect do I regain a activation?

Here is one reply from a Chris P.:

Quote: Disc based authentication required authentication every time you launched the game. Online authentication is more flexible and for Mass Effect, game authentication is needed only at the initial launch of the game on a particular machine. Re-authentication is required if the game is re-installed on a previously authorized machine for any reason.

I did not ask about authenication or what is required. I asked if I get an activation back if I uninstalled. This reply does not answer my question. In fact the only 3 possible answers should be Yes, No, or I Don't Know.

I asked again, trying to be clear to exactly what I wanted to know. A Chester responds:

Quote: Thank you for updating on us, Electronic Arts Technical Support. I do apologize for the inconvenience. If you just reinstall the game, you do not need to re-activate the game again.

Again, that is not what I am asking. I am not trying to be rude. I am not trying to be a jerk. I am trying to get a straight forward answer to my question and EA Support continues to fail to understand SIMPLE ENGLISH!

Yes, No, or I Don't Know. How hard can it be?!?!?!

Allegedly, an official answer was eventually wrested from EA—confirming that 3 activations was the limit:

Unfortunately, you will not gain an activation by uninstalling the game.

Any other EA customers running into this wall? Or is this just bad communication? Any luck getting new activations by contacting EA?

The Obliviousness of EA support [Bioware]

Among other things, ACTA will outlaw P2P (even when used to share works that are legally available, like my books), and crack down on things like region-free DVD players. All of this is taking place out of the public eye, presumably with the intention of presenting it as a fait accompli just as the ink is drying on the treaty.

Wikileaks points out that the U.S. politician behind ACTA is Howard Berman from California, a Democrat whose top four campaign contributors for 2006 were Time Warner ($21,000), News Corp ($15,000), Sony Corp of America ($14,000), and Walt Disney Co ($13,550).

So what can you do, other than shake your head in disgust? Well, here's a list of members of the subcommittee overseeing the U.S. side of things, so you could start by seeing if your rep is listed and contacting him or her directly. One Boing Boing reader suggests contacting your representative regardless of committee membership—you can find the correct contact information here using your zip code or address.

"Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007)" [Wikileaks via Boing Boing]
(Photo: Getty)

Hi guys, not sure if you're interested in putting this sort of thing on your site anymore, but I've had my own problems with Microsoft, the 360 and their support.

In a sentence, I called their support after replacing my busted 360, and their response to my question as to why I can't access most of my content either online or offline from my old hard drive anymore was "Can't help you, sorry. Buy all of the content a second time."

Now here's the long version:
I was kindly greeted by Alex, the automated system guy (I've never seen any company give theirs a name), then transferred over to a man who I believe went by the name "Jeeves" (at least that's what it sounded like to me through the accent). After a bit of friendly banter and him asking me for a whole bunch of different information, I explained to him the following situation of which I will attempt to detail here in as few words as possible:
- My launch 360 broke about a year and a half ago, but it wasn't under warranty, so I cracked it open and fixed it, making the new extended 3-year "three red ring" warranty void.

- My launch 360 red ringed just a little while ago.

- I decide to purchase a new console, figuring I'd like the fresh warranty and the new (instead of refurbished) console, and I'd just put my old hard drive in the new console and things should work alright.
- Even after logging into Live, I can't access the full games that I'd purchased over Live, so I call Microsoft's Xbox support line, expecting someone to be friendly and help me with my problem. While they were friendly, the only solution I was offered was to buy all of my content a second time. Yes, they instructed me to buy the content AGAIN.
I promptly explained to them that they'll transfer licenses between the broken and refurb consoles they send out, so I wondered why they couldn't help me. I could prove that the consoles were both mine in whatever way they wanted, verify hard drive serial numbers, give them receipts, Xbox Live account information, etc... And I got nothing other than the exact same line about not being allowed by publishers to transfer licenses, and that they have to contact them about transferring licenses and get the publisher's approval for each game.
Then I asked to be elevated, and "Jeeves" politely transferred me to his supervisor, Ian. I spoke with Ian briefly and he gave me the same response: "Buy the content again." To his credit, he did get me to attempt some other things to at least get my content working when I'm online, but he ultimately said it's not up to him.
It's very frustrating, seeing as I've gifted consoles to friends, bought a launch 360, and even replaced my 360 when it broke, and now this is the sort of awesome customer service I get for being a dedicated 360 user.

I'll probably end up selling my two 360s and accessories, and buying something else with the money I get from it. This experience with Microsoft's DRM has absolutely put me off of any of their products in the future, game-related or not.

- Mac

Any XBOX 360 experts have better advice for Mac than Microsoft did? Or does he really have to buy his content a second time?

(Photo: Milkham )

From the Mass Effect forum:

There has been a lot of discussion in the past few days on how the security requirements for Mass Effect for PC will work. BioWare, a division of EA, wants to let fans know that Mass Effect will not require 10- day periodic re-authentication.

BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.

The solution being implemented for Mass Effect for the PC changes copy protection from being key disc based, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to a one time online authentication.

In the end, it gamers in the armed forces and in areas with sketchy internet access had their voices heard:

Q: Did BioWare and EA change their mind on requiring that the game be re-authorized every 10 days?

A: BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.

Good work!

Official BioWare/EA Response to DRM Discussion (Thanks, Thief!)

From the Mass Effect forums:

It is good that Bioware and EA want to kill piracy — but really, though; at what expense?...If somehow a copy of MEPC game gets out w/out any protection around comes out, that copy won't be hindered by any checks. Why should a legitimate buyer of MEPC have to pay money to be treated like he's a pirate when he isn't the pirate?

Say you, the legitimate MEPC owner, has lost their Internet connection — and it's say not on your end, but your ISP's. What now? Will you be locked out of your legit copy of your game for NO REASON?

Say you, legitimate MEPC owner, tried to get your copy verified online from its online check — but, for some reason, EA and Bioware's servers are down. Or say, too many MEPC users are booting MEPC at once to get verified and you just can't connect for a good while — whether it's 2 minutes, 20 mins, or 1 hour or more. That's an inconvenience. So, will the game boot b/c you can't get your legit copy verified?

Let's hope EA and Bioware are planning on operating these servers in perpetuity, because Mass Effect is very addicting, and if you don't agree, my level 60 Adept Nemesis will Singularity your ass.

What do you think of this style of DRM? Are they punishing the ones who don't steal? Or is this necessary to protect their investment?

Mass Effect for PC System Specs, SecuROM and FAQ [Bioware]

Yet another reason not to buy DRM music. They are telling us that we have to burn our music to CD format since no additional computers or devices can be authorized after August 31, 2008. So let's see. Burn to CD, then rip said CD to MP3. Couldn't they just give us a tool to do it for us, just this once?

MSN Music is constantly striving to provide you, our user, with the most compelling music experience that we can. We want to tell you about an upcoming change to our support service to ensure you have a seamless experience with the music you've downloaded from MSN Music.

As you may recall from a November 14, 2006 mail, we entered into a new partnership for music downloads. The Zune Marketplace can be accessed directly from any MSN Music artist page and offers users thousands of tracks for users to download individually or with a season pass subscription. You can still come to MSN Music to find all the latest news and previews of your favorite artists and songs, but in order to buy music, we'll take you to our partners at the Zune Marketplace.

With the launch of our partnership with Zune Marketplace, we closed the MSN Music store and stopped selling music directly from MSN Music. However, we have continued to offer assistance and support for existing songs that you've purchased from MSN Music, including help to transfer songs that you've purchased to additional computers and MSN Music compatible devices.

I am writing to let you know that as of August 31, 2008, Microsoft will change the level of support to be offered for music purchased directly from MSN Music prior to November 14, 2006. As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. License keys already obtained as of August 31, 2008 will continue to allow you to listen to songs on all the computers that you previously authorized for service.

We wanted to send out this notification well in advance to remind you to backup your music and to provide you sufficient time to confirm license keys for the songs you've purchased from MSN Music.

This is also a good time to remind you that you can back up and secure your music by burning your purchased songs and playlists to CD. With Windows Media Player, you can burn your own Audio CDs from the music stored in your library. Complete instructions for this can be found at MSN Music online help.

Please take this opportunity to make sure you have the licenses you need to access your music. As a friendly reminder, please remember that the MSN Music service allows you to authorize up to 5 computers for songs purchased from MSN Music. You must have licenses for the songs on each authorized computer, in order to be able to play the songs successfully. If you have already played a given song on a computer, then you have successfully obtained the license key for that song. MSN Music keys do not expire. If you intend to transfer a previously downloaded song to a new computer (or an existing computer with a new operating system, such as an upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista) within the maximum allowed limit of 5 computers, please do so before August 31, 2008. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.

If you have additional questions about this process or any other questions about playing your music, please visit MSN Music online help for more information or feel free to contact our Technical Support representatives for assistance, prior to the August 31, 2007 date.

I'd like to personally thank you for your continued support of MSN Music and encourage you to send us your feedback and suggestions about how we can continue to improve the MSN Music experience.

Sincerely,
Rob Bennett
General Manager, MSN Entertainment & Video Services

Evening, Consumerist Editors (and hopefully readers)!

I'm sending this in due to my experience with XBOX LIVE Support and Microsoft's broken XBOX LIVE DRM (Originally posted here: http://consumerist.com/355519/microsoft-has-no-answer-for-their-broken-xbox-live-drm).
I too, like Kevin, sent in my XBOX360 for repair after the RRoD, and was sent a brand new XBOX360 as a replacement. Now, mind you, I had my XBOX360 registered on their website for warranty information, so I could see when they sent a brand new one, because the Serial Number on my warranty information was updated before they even had the new box on the truck to me. This was late December / early January.

So, when Kevin's story broke, I decided to check into whether or not my content purchased on the old XBOX360 could be accessed while I was offline, or by another GamerTag on the same console. Nope, it couldn't.

So I called XBOXLIVE support in February, and got the same runaround as Kevin- re-download it, restore your GamerTag, etc, etc, etc. They never once offered the re-licensing until I specifically asked for the points to re-download my content. Once they did, I got the same spiel as others in the previous thread; for those that weren't keeping up, Microsoft could "fix" the problem by re-licensing my old content to my new XBOX360's serial number. Of course, this lengthy process (CTRL + H being a difficult task for their XBOX LIVE department, but common knowledge to their warranty division) would take 20 - 30 days. Of course, having no other alternative, I told them to go ahead and do it and get it resolved already.

This was 32 days ago at this point. Monday morning I get a call from an unknown number, and the message on my voicemail was from XBOX LIVE, letting me know that the re-licensing has been resolved, and all I need to do is re-download my older purchased content to the new XBOX360.

Lo and behold, it works. And I don't even have to delete the old content. Just go under Account Management, then Download History, find the content and choose the "Download Again" option, and there it is, available for use online, offline, and on any GamerTag on the console.

So I just figured I'd drop this to the Consumerist to let you guys know that Microsoft might finally be getting something right.

Or maybe their XBOX LIVE Department took a class in Microsoft Office and learned Find & Replace.
-Starsmore

(Photo:Milkham)

Update: Missdona has provided a couple of useful links in the comments below. If you experience similar issues with select programs being incorrectly DRMed, check out these threads for advice on how to resolve the situation.

Here's what Dean experienced:

"This morning, my kids and I decided to watch a TiVo HD recording we made last night of The Making of John Adams. This is the new upcoming mini-series by Tom Hanks and others about the lives and accomplishments of John Adams. When we started watching it, I first found that the TiVo had flagged it for mandatory auto-deletion within a few hours of being deleted, due to 'copyright policies.' Hmm - never saw that one before.
 
After about 5 minutes watching, my oldest son came into the room, and we decided to start it over so he could enjoy it. What I found was something I've never seen before and has me pretty frosted. When I backed up to the beginning and attempted to watch it again, TiVo would not allow me to - again stating that it had violated copyright policies. After countless attempts at forward and reverse moves, we found that we could now not watch any portion of the show! I rebooted the TiVo, and found the same thing. No can do - the TiVo/HBO/Comcast programming had locked it from being viewed again! Then as promised at 11:29am EST, it deleted from my hard drive and there was nothing I could do about it.

In this Wired interview from November 2004, Tivo's general counsel assured the public that it was unlikely (ha!) that content providers would take advantage of the Macrovision technology to restrict recording of regular programming:

What if the higher-value content is just the beginning? This could be a Trojan horse.
That would be a violent blow to consumer flexibility. You could end up in a situation where different products by different manufacturers would have different rules. I don't think we would go along with it.
 
With the cable companies in bed with the studios, TiVo could be the last line of defense for the DVR as we know it.
Sometimes I feel that way. We're aware of the danger, and the slippery slope. The danger is that DRM can tilt the balance of copyright so that ultimately there's no concept of fair use, because the content owners dictate what the rules are. But I think content owners are beginning to recognize that if you make things too restrictive, then consumers will find nonlegal ways to achieve what they want.

"UPDATED: HBO's new miniseries IS locked down for TiVo recording" [The Culture of Ownership] (Thanks to Missdona!)

RELATED
"Has TiVo Forsaken Us?" [Wired]
(Photo: Culture of Ownership)

Here's a quick summary:

• November 2007: Kevin's XBOX 360 is replaced, causing his content to lose full functionality. He calls Microsoft.
  
• Microsoft keeps Kevin on the phone for an hour trying different methods of restoring functionality to his content. Nothing works. They say they will call him back in two weeks.
  
• They do not call him back, so he calls them. Microsoft makes him repeat the steps he tried the first time he called. They tell him they will call him back in two weeks.
  
• This cycle repeats twice more before Kevin gets a call from Frank at XBOX escalations. It's now the second week of January.
  
• Kevin periodically speaks to Frank. Frank has no answers for him.
  
• February 7, 2008: Frank tells Kevin that there's nothing more he can do and, when Kevin asks when he can expect a resolution, Frank says "hopefully sometime in 2008."

Kevin writes:

I just wanted to drop you a line about my recent experience with Microsoft's horrible customer service for their 360 consoles. First a bit of background for folks not familiar with the 360's problems and it's DRM system.

It's well known that Microsoft's 360 console has an unusually high failure rate resulting in many users suffering what has been coined the 'Red Ring of Death' and being forced to send in the console on warranty. While Microsoft has extended the warranty on these systems for 3-years against this problem they are refusing to fully repair the devices. While they are happy to replace the device if you are an Xbox Live Marketplace user your box will not be fully functional on return. If you have purchased any content through their Xbox Live service which sells full games, movies, tv shows and add-on content for various titles you will find that it no longer works properly on your replacement console.

When you purchase content on Xbox Live it's linked to two things. The Xbox Live ID of the original purchaser of the content and a secret 'code' of some sort inside the Xbox 360 itself. You can use your content on any Xbox 360 anytime your are signed into Live using the original purchaser's Xbox Live account. You can also use the content offline or with any profile signed into the 360 the content was originally purchased on. This is particularly good for families who have multiple gamers with separate profiles. Any content purchased on the system is available to everyone who signs into the box online or offline. Well, that is until your box red rings.

In October of 2007 my 360 experienced a hardware failure and the red ring of death. I sent it in for replacement and after waiting over a month I was shipped a new replacement console. This new replacement console has a different serial number and as a result all of my downloaded content only works now when the purchasing profile is signed into Xbox live. Additional profiles on the system can no longer access the content. I can no longer access the content when I'm not signed into Xbox Live. So any internet issues with my system or Xbox Live (which experienced serious problems for most of last month) means I can no longer use the items I have purchased. As far as I'm concerned since the functionality I had before is now crippled my console has not been repaired.

I immediately contacted Microsoft when I noticed this a day or two after I received my system back in November of 2007. They had me try a few things in the system blade and redownload one of my items. This did nothing to resolve then issue. At that time they put me through over an hour of providing them with serial numbers, reference numbers, UPS tracking numbers and all sorts of other information while they located the information about my repair. Somehow they had apparently lost it. After this frustrating episode was over they escalated me to a supervisor. He informed me this had to be reviewed and that someone would call me back in the next two weeks.

Two weeks go by, I call back. I first get a Xbox Live rep who doesn't know what to do with my reference number from my previous call and makes me go through the whole process again of giving serial numbers and items from the previous ticket. I get escalated to a supervisor who thankfully can use my original reference number. He tells me he has nothing new to tell me and that I should expect a call back in the next two weeks.

This cycle repeats two more times until I get fed up with constantly being told 'two more weeks!' and I email a different contact address in Microsoft. This seems to get things moving since I'm contacted very quickly by a representative who only calls himself 'Frank' from "Microsoft Xbox Escalations" he assures me that he is going to follow the issue to resolution. But he has nothing to tell me at this time but promises to give me weekly updates until the issue is resolved. It is now the 2nd week of January.

The next week he calls up asking me to give him the serial number for the console so he can pass it along to whoever is working on the issue. He says he doesn't have anything new but hopes this will help. The next week he calls up to report that he has nothing new to tell me yet. Still no ETA. This continues weekly until February 7th.

Yesterday, February 7th, Frank calls to tell me he will no longer be working on my case because there is nothing he can do. I ask if he is passing me onto someone else who will handle it and he says he is not. I ask if there is anyone I can call for status updates on my issue and he says there is not. I ask him when I can expect it to be resolved and he says I quote: "hopefully sometime in 2008." I ask to speak to a supervisor and he refuses assuring me there is nothing that can be done. Apparently my issue is being handled by the "Live Team" but whoever this team is they do not talk to any department outside their own, they do not give ETAs. Essentially I'm being told that since my console suffered a widespread hardware failure, was serviced by Microsoft under warranty, that now I'm supposed to wait for a call back from Microsoft some day in the next year or more for the system to be fully functional again. Furthermore I have nobody I can contact or speak to regarding the status of my problem.

Let this be a warning to anyone considering making purchases on Xbox Live. Microsoft does not stand behind their product in regards to this service and failures of their own systems. They are happy to take your money and give you the run around until you simply give up and go away. This is honestly the worst customer service experience I have ever had with any company.

I saw that and sent an email to each of them and one to Major Nelson who runs Microsoft's official Xbox Live blog.

As a result of those emails, Frank called me again.

He confirmed for me the following:

* That he can give me no ETA for when this issue will be resolved.
* That there is nobody I can call for status updates since the team that does 'relicensing' does not give updates.
* That they will only provide me with resolution when all my content is relicensed not partial.
* That there is no compensation for the fact this has taken and will likely take months more to resolve.
* That there is nothing more he can do.
* That he 'hopes' that it will be resolved shortly.

I'm expected to accept this as the resolution and basically "don't call us, we'll call you."

Worst Customer Service Ever.

Kevin

(Photo:Milkham)

Adobe has been promising a Leopard-friendly version since at least November 13th of last year, but as of today they've still released nothing. In the meantime, students who've spent considerable amounts on e-textbooks are out of luck and money.

The forum notes that there are a couple of potential workarounds that have seen some success, but the truly astounding aspect to this is that Adobe hasn't stepped up to help ensure refunds for those who weren't told their purchases would be useless—and that e-book sellers aren't making it clear at check-out that Leopard won't work.

(Thanks to Tyler!)

"Digital Editions in Mac OS X Leopard" [Adobe Forums]

The P2P-turned-legit subscription service announced this morning that it will begin selling unprotected copies of its entire catalog in MP3 format beginning in the second quarter of 2008. Users of the service will be able to buy individual DRM-free tracks and albums, but Napster's subscription service will remain unchanged. The company hailed the announcement as the first subscription service "featuring major label content" to announce plans to sell unprotected MP3s.

Sort of makes you wonder: Couldn't they have started doing this, like, 7 years ago?

Napster goes back to MP3s [Ars Technica]

In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without the copyright protection software that has long restricted the use of music downloaded from the Internet, BusinessWeek.com has learned. Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony (SNE) and Bertelsmann, will make at least part of its collection available without so-called digital rights management, or DRM, software some time in the first quarter, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sony BMG would become the last of the top four music labels to drop DRM, following Warner Music Group (WMG), which in late December said it would sell DRM-free songs through Amazon.com's (AMZN) digital music store. EMI and Vivendi's Universal Music Group announced their plans for DRM-free downloads earlier in 2007.

Will they? Or did the RIAA miss the bus?

Sony BMG Plans to Drop DRM [BusinessWeek]
(Photo:Getty)

The poor human who caused this error writes:

Adobe pushed out an upgrade of its Creative Suite. I installed it, as prompted. This is what happens when I try to run any element of the Suite after the install.

Click on the modal dialog box and the program closes. For extra redundancy, there's a second error message that reads "licensing for this product has stopped working." But I am impressed that I wasn't merely able to get the programs to fail, but that I got them to fail "catastrophically."

Adobe Creative Suite fails "catastrophically" thanks to DRM [BoingBoing]

Yahoo! Music was painless to cancel, but Napster took a half hour:

Napster
What a pain. There's no way to cancel online, so I called the cancellation number (800.839.4210) and waited on hold for about 20 minutes listening to messages like "Did you know that your Napster subscription lets you access over 5 million tracks? Please hold, and a customer service representative will be with you shortly."

A woman came on the line and asked me a bunch of questions (Was this my first call? Could I confirm my email? Is there a phone number on which she could call me back in case something goes wrong with the call? Can I hold again?). Granted, this is two days after Christmas, but still, I wasn't too happy at how long this was taking.

When she took me off hold again, I told her I wanted to cancel because 2007 was the year 3 of the major labels started selling music without DRM. Back on hold.

She came back — presumably after consulting a manager or the internet to find out what DRM is — and then responded, "I don't understand, because all of our music contains DRM." Back on hold. This time, I told her I wanted to cancel because the files were DRMed, and she finally canceled my subscription.

Total time for cancellation: 30 minutes and 32 seconds

Customers "can feel confident" their songs will play on whatever music device they buy in 2008, said Pete Baltaxe, Amazon's director of digital music.

"We're very pleased with where we are," Baltaxe said of customer adoption of the music service, though he would not provide data on downloads to date or site traffic.

U.S. album sales were down 14 percent in late November from a year earlier, according to Nielsen SoundScan data, as a growing number of fans buy individual songs online or use free file-sharing.

Digital music revenue has been growing in the double-digit percentages, but the total take is not enough to make up for the shortfall in compact disc sales.

Other applications of the patent include using it to create DRM content or to insert ads dynamically at playback of already downloaded content:

The playback token may be implemented as a digital rights management (DRM) license acquired in response to playback of the predetermined content. Another aspect involves a content insertion engine for inserting ads or other predetermined content into the playback of downloaded content.

The authors, Dierdre Mulligan and Aaron Perzanowski, point out that unless Sony deliberately tried to harm its customers, it neglected to properly evaluate its third-party DRM solutions before releasing them to the public—or else it would have been aware of the programs' potential for damage. From pages 1179-80:

Prior to inking the deal to provide XCP to Sony BMG, First4Internet's business focused on content filtering, particularly the automated recognition of pornographic images. Aside from an earlier revision on XCP used by a number of labels on a smattering of pre-release CDs, First4Internet had no apparent expertise or experience in content
protection software.

SunnComm, the company that delivered MediaMax, offered even more cause for concern. The company began as a provider of Elvis impersonation services. After a change in management following a false press release announcing a non-existent $25 million production deal with Warner Brothers, the company purchased a 3.5" floppy disk factory in 2001, displaying a disturbing dearth of technological savvy.

"The Magnificence of the Disaster: Reconstructiong the Sony BMG Rootkit Incident" (PDF) [Berkely Technology Law Journal via BoingBoing]

RELATED
"Universal Music CEO: Record industry can't tell when geeks are lying to us about technology"
Consumerist posts on the Sony Rootkit debacle
(Photo: Getty)

Walmart's online music store ditched DRM back in August, and one assumes that strategy has been more successful than their old Microsoft "PlaysForSure" store that sold music that wouldn't work on an iPod or even a Zune.

Go, free market, go!

Amazon and Wal-Mart unwittingly team up against DRM [Ars Technica via BoingBoing]
(Photo:Ms. Jessica)

In addition, Netflix also offers prior season episodes of other popular NBC series including "30 Rock," "Friday Night Lights" and "The Office." For these shows, Netflix subscribers will have the option of enjoying them on DVD or watching them instantly on their PCs at Netflix.com.

"We are pleased to expand our relationship with NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution and be part of their innovative distribution strategy," said Robert Kyncl, Vice President of Content Acquisition for Netflix. "We have a shared interest in granting fans expanded access to and strengthening the network's key franchises."

"We are excited to establish Netflix as a part of our off-network syndication strategy for 'Heroes', " said Frances Manfredi, Executive Vice President & General Sales Manager, NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution. "This deal reflects the changing landscape of the entertainment marketplace and our objective of finding new buyers that complement our traditional customers."

NETFLIX AND NBC UNIVERSAL ANNOUNCE ONLINE DEAL FOR 'HEROES' AND OTHER POPULAR SERIES (Press Release) [Netflix]
(Photo:ikibalam)

From boingboing:

Allan Wood (a baseball megafan who has written a book about Babe Ruth) purchased over $280 worth of digital downloads of baseball games from Major League Baseball, who have just turned off their DRM server, leaving him with no way to watch his videos. MLB's position is that since these videos were "one time sales," and that means that Wood and everyone else who gave money to MLB is out of luck — they'll never be able to watch their videos again,.

MLB shut down the DRM server because they've changed suppliers, and now they expect suckers to buy downloads of games in the new DRM format. Anyone who does this needs their head examined — using DRM itself is contemptible enough, but using DRM this way is just plain criminal.

MLB rips off fans who bought DRM videos [boingboing]

The seller made the mistake, but the gamers are paying the price.

Todd says:

This complaint is about Valve, a PC video game company which makes games like Half-Life 2.

This effects many thousands of customers.

They recently released a product called the "Orange Box", which is a bunch of games.
All their products are activated online via unique serial numbers through the Steam service.

Many of us bought the product (and hence, the serial numbers) legitimately online via well known international game stores, as they sell them significantly cheaper than American stores.

We were able to activate the products without a problem.
One week later, Valve, via the Steam program, inactivated all Orange Box games (after they had already been active for some time), stating that they are in the "incorrect territory."
There was no warning or anything, just completely inactivated.

The thread that was started on www.valve.com has been removed by the operators there.

I think this is absolutely reprehensible customer care. We paid for our products, and they just go and remove it without warning from our computers.

Thanks

-Todd

Date Posted: Oct/22/2007 7:57 PM Rating: +1

same crap here
this was my question

======================================================================================

Customer (xxx xxxxxxxx) 10/20/2007 11:07 AM

Hello my cd-key was invalidated and game removed
i get a steam error
Steam - Game unavailable
Team Fortress 2 is not available in your territory

ok so i contacted retailer to get a refund
and purchased a new copy at a local Circuit City here in Tacoma
but when i enter new cd-key says game is already installed log in to steam
but of course that doesn't work and takes me back to
Steam - Game unavailable
Team Fortress 2 is not available in your territory

so i guess i need the supposedly invalid cd-key removed
so i can enter my new one
thanks

======================================================================================

Response (DougV) 10/22/2007 05:06 PM

Games purchased in Thailand or Russia can only be played from those countries. If you purchased a game from Thailand or Russia and you do not live in one of those countries, you need to contact the seller for a refund.

======================================================================================

Customer (xxx xxxxxxx) 10/22/2007 05:37 PM
yes did you even read what i said?
and do what i asked you to do
guess not

What a mess!

Valve Orange Box for ~20$ [Fat Wallet]

The Forbes journalist writes, "But more surprising is that fans chose to steal music they could legally download for any price they choose," but it's not clear whether that's the analyst's opinion or the writer's. At any rate, we think it's overstating the issue. Even the analyst admits that it's not proof that Radiohead's fans are a mutinous lot of anarchists:

Garland argues that this kind of digital theft is more a matter of habit than of economics. "People don't know Radiohead's site. They do know their favorite BitTorrent site and they use it every day," he says. "It's quite simply easier for folks to get the illegal version than the legal version."

But for Doug Lichtman, an intellectual property professor at the UCLA School of Law, the volume of piracy following In Rainbows' release erodes the success of Radiohead's innovation. "If the community rejects even forward-thinking experiments like this one, real harm is done to the next generation of experimentation and change," he says.

Lichtman speculates that users may have interpreted Radiohead's offer as a giveaway and so felt more comfortable downloading the album from other free sources. Fans may also have been turned off by the band's requirement that users register by providing their name and e-mail and postal addresses.

"Free? Steal It Anyway" [Forbes via Slashdot]
(Photo: Getty)

Although novel, we're not sure how much of an added value this really is since special edition sets are more expensive than regular DVDs anyway. (Amazon reports the list price for the Special Edition "Live Free or Die Hard" DVD is $34.98, discounted to $23.99. By comparison, they list the regular old ugly DVD release at $29.99, discounted to $15.99.) And yes, the semi-tech-savvy can rip DVDs and compress them for playback without the studio's help. Still, they win points for convenience, and we're impressed and surprised that a studio isn't running screaming from a movie file for once.

We'll reserve final opinion until after we hear more about how easy the process is, and just what "DRM-free" really means to a movie studio, but here's how Hollywood Reporter describes the process:

To utilize the Digital Copy feature, consumers can insert Disc 2 of the "Live Free" DVD into their computer. A menu will pop up, giving users the choice of either executing the Digital Copy application or launching the DVD special features. If the Digital Copy application is selected, the computer will verify the proper requirements and ask the user to enter a 16-digit serial code, found inside the DVD case. After selecting a destination — either the computer's hard drive or a connected PlaysForSure video player — the transfer will begin, and the program will be ready for playback after about five minutes.

""Die Hard" DVD will include computer file" [Reuters]

Welcome to blu-ray, where you need to make sure your player has the latest firmware update or your legally purchased disc simply won't play. How fun.

From Ars Technica:

...two new Blu-ray titles that have just been released—Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Day After Tomorrow. Both of these titles have been reported to exhibit various degrees of failure on some Blu-ray players. Some refuse to play until after an interminable two-minute delay, others skip randomly making watching the movie futile, and then there is this [message from Fox].

How nice of Fox to include a link to their web site in this helpful and friendly message! Unfortunately for the owners of the player in question, the second-generation Samsung BD-P1200, there is no new firmware to download for the player. Visiting the URL listed above—which after a maze of redirects and confusing menus finally does get you to Samsung's BD-P1200 firmware page—will give you no satisfaction. The latest firmware listed there is the same 1.0 version that shipped with the player. The same fate is in store for owners of LG's first-generation dual-format BH100 player.

New Blu-ray discs with BD+ DRM failing to play on some devices [Ars Technica]
(Photo:Engadget)

The big benefit of the new Amazon offering is by now pretty well known: Amazon isn't putting any copy protection on the tracks they sell (in other words, they're "DRM-free"), so you can play the mp3 files on as many devices as you like, and not just on iPods (or Zunes, or Sansas, etc.). They're also using a different pricing structure that's closer to what the labels have been fighting for: less than a dollar for many older or less popular tracks, and more than a dollar for some new hits. This means some albums are $8 or less, while some new ones are closer to CD prices.

TidBITS had some small problems with the Amazon MP3 downloader, but nothing so bad that it would break the service for you. But, as they put it, "it's not as though Amazon can ever get as close to the iPod as Apple can" in terms of making it easy to buy and sync songs."

One thing the review doesn't cover is the limited song selection at Amazon—they have around 2 million, compared to Apple's. But these two reviews both go into more detail about the pros and cons of the new service. Overall, it definitely seems worth checking out before you make your next iTunes purchase.

"Amazon MP3 Takes on the iTunes Store" [TidBITS]

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"Amazon MP3 vs. Apple iTunes: Where Should You Shop?"
"Amazon MP3: a quick review"