Microsoft's new Zune player applies a 3 day/3 play DRM limitation to all files it exports, even if the file is music you made yourself, is public domain music, or is Creative Commons Licensed.

From Zune Insider: Answers to Some Questions



From BoingBoing: Microsoft Zune will violate Creative Commons licenses



MediaLoper: Zune’s Big Innovation: Viral DRM

How ludicrous.

I was expecting there to be a catch of some sort. WiFi makes it so easy to transfer music that without re-application of DRM everyone would swap freely.
Zune's business model is therefore also extremely sensitive to cracking DRM.

Anyway, nothing rockbox can't handle, maybe it'll see primetime when it can alleviate the less appealing parts of the Zune concept. I have to give Microsoft credit for thinking up something that's good in principle.

If we could load it with some freeware or bypass that DRM thingy, it'd make the device so much cooler. Imagine tuning into other people's Zunes and listening to their tastes (of course hopefully they've enabled "sharing"). It'd be a great way of meeting people who have the same musical taste as you, or just catch some good music that's being played.


but sigh... this drm thingy.

by the way, based on the information given so far, is it possible for me to like just open my zune player to all listeners? i mean can i act like a radio station or something?

The same apply to modern Minidisc (NetMD and Hi-MD), which put everything --including MP3-- into a DRMed container (.omg; .oma) in order to avoid MD to MD copies. And guess what? We heard nothing about CC's licence violation...
I read the same comment on a french site. IMO, this is just thick noise for childish anti-"M$" people.

Anyway, it's not the Zune which should be attacked for possible CC's violation, but the user who take the full responsability of choosing of DRMed way to transfer files protected by Creative Commons' licences instead of using a compliant one (like zune#1->PC->zune#2). The violation doesn't come from the product but from the user. Like P2P tools...

No. You can only share one song with one person at a time. When the file is sent, DRM is automatically applied to it.

They've taken a unique feature that might have set zun apart from the rest, and chopped the legs off of it. No player is going to survive in this market if we have to wait for Rockbox to make a UI for us that works.

Zune is like the contestant on Jeopardy who is standing there at the end of the game with zero dollars insincerely grinning as they say, "Thanks for playing- here's the home game."




The only problem is that the RIAA went after Napster and Kazaa saying that the companies were responsible for facilitating illegal activity. If that's true then Microsoft has responsibility for facilitating the violation of CC licenses.

I agree that the user is responsible for how he uses his tools. But that doesn't mean that the tool should hobble legitimate use to try to prevent illegitimate use.

By the way, I'm sure Zune's "features" would prevent the "compliant" process of sharing a CC licensed file you describe.

See ya
Steve

What RIAA says is something, what court is deciding is another thing. People are free in most country to go to court against Microsoft and his future product - like RIAA and other organisations did. It's not my role to say what is or isn't in accordance with the law - only judges could
What I think is that Plextor, Sony, Pionner, Nero are faciliting illegal activities; that Ford, Mercedes, Renault are selling cars faciliting Highway Code violations... and each times users are sentenced, not companies themselves.

Off topic, really... but... it's all about the primary use. Original Napster and Kazaa were primarily used for, well, distribution of copyrighted content. Yes, they both could have "legal" uses... but that's not what the masses used the service/network for.

Automobiles, CD burners, Windows, Zune, iTunes, VCRs, FTP, BitTorrent (protocol), etc. have obvious mainstream legal use....

Microsoft is in a bind - they could hardly NOT include DRM in this feature - if they didn't, they'd effectively be making unrestricted P2P hardware. They'd be sued to hell and back by the same organizations that are closing down P2P software one-by-one. Other legit music sharing apps like iTunes' library sharing (and the UPnP apps that everyone else uses) only work through streaming (subnet-only), not straight file copying.

Streaming wifi sharing would be a LOT more useful than this implementation.

See ya
Steve

I understood that it also does that (it's supposed to be UPnP capable, streaming to Xbox 360's, etc, right?). But the ability to send music to someone else to listen to later is where they had to restrict it.

Yeah, it'd be a good concept...

Imagine this:
You have a local band playing a small show. It'd be amazing to be able to 'broadcast' a song to people who have a zune, "Here's our new single, pull out your zune if you want a copy".. People can download the song as they heard it, people can share with people who share and share it..... Microsoft is definitely missing the boat here, which is fine.. They're in the business to make money, and they feel that chopping the legs off of what could be an *amazing* concept is necessary.. That's very sad.

Maybe if the DRM restriction would be 3 day/unlimited play this would still work.

I mean, three days is more than enough time to make up your mind about a song.

Maybe this way MS could have its cake and eat it too.

But limiting to three plays is just nonsense.