Tag: DRM

It's been a long time coming, but Apple has finally secured the deals to sell the entire iTunes music catalogue without DRM and the entire music library is finally available in the 256kbps AAC format that has been known as iTunes Plus until now. Starting in April, iTunes will also be introducing variable pricing for songs - 69¢, 99¢ and $1.29 depending on the prices set by the record ...

RealNetworks executivies may have thought that the company was releasing a lawsuit-proof DVD ripper when it decided to add mandatory DRM to its RealDVD application launched last month. After all, while the software lets you rip DVD movies and save the video on your hard drive, it makes it extraordinarily difficult to share the media with other users, or even to watch it on a portable device or ...

RealNetworks, makers of RealPlayer and the company that brought you the Rhapsody subscription music service are expected to announced a new product called RealDVD today. What's RealDVD? It's a DVD ripper. But unlike most DVD rippers available today, RealDVD makes a complete copy of a disc right down to the menus, alternate audio tracks, and special features. Oh yeah, and the software only lets ...

RealNetworks has launched a DRM-free MP3 music store. The Rhapsody MP3 store has music from all four major labels, with over 5 million tracks available for download. Most songs are priced at 99 cents, and most albums cost $9.99. That's about the same price that Apple charges for DRM-free AAC audio files, but a bit more than Amazon MP3 charges for many songs and albums. All songs will be encoded ...

Amazon offers one of the most compelling iTunes competitors around right now. The online retailer offers music downloads from all four major labels. And unlike Apple's iTunes, Microsoft's Zune Marketplace and other digital music stores, Amazon MP3 offers DRM-free music at reasonable prices. There's just one problem -- the service doesn't work outside of the US. Yet. For months, Amazon has been ...

Back in 2006, Microsoft decided to kill its MSN Music store. But MSN Music customers didn't have anything to worry about, because the songs they'd already legally purchased would be theirs to play forever. Sort of. In April of this year, Microsoft announced that it would be pulling the plug on its DRM servers for MSN Music. That meant that once you authorized your purchased music you'd be able to ...

Want to download popular music without paying and without breaking the law? Qtrax is a new advertising-supported service that lets you download music from two of the four major labels, Universal and EMI as well as several smaller labels. The service uses a modified version of the Songbird Media player to let you search or browse for music and download tracks. Some music willbe available through ...

Napster has launched its anticipated MP3 music store, bringing the service a bit closer to its roots. But you know, without the piracy. Now Napster customers have two options. You can sign up for a subscription based service that lets you listen to any of 6 million songs for a monthly fee. But if you stop paying, your music disappears. Thanks DRM. Or you can individually purchase any of those 6 ...

After successfully releasing the last Nine Inch Nails album in 100% digital format with a variety of pricing levels ranging from free to $300, Trent Reznor has decided to go all out and give away the band's new album, "The Slip" for free. You can download all ten tracks in a variety of DRM-free formats, including MP3, FLAC, M4A lossless, and even 24/96 WAV. This latest move proves one of two ...

It's been a busy week for anyone obsessed with operating system upgrades. Microsoft released Windows XP SP3 to manufacturers, Canonical launched Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and OpenSUSE 11 came one step closer to release. But this week's software news wasn't all operating systems, all the time. Here are a few of our favorite stories from the week that was: DRM strikes again: MSN Music customers left ...

Oh the promise of Digital Rights Management. Ever since the dawn of technology, DRM of some form has existed with the promise being that if large companies supported it, the removal of basic (and somewhat fundamental) consumer fair use and rights would be made irrelevant. The likes of Apple and Microsoft aren't exactly going to kill their own music services and DRM servers, in turn locking you out ...

Here at Download Squad HQ, we're (sadly) all-too-often reminded of the archaic buffoonery found in the world of big-business digital music and video. Whether it's the notion that DRM prevents piracy (hint: it doesn't) or the fact that by being blood-relatives of mafia bigshots label executives you are likely to escape a kneecapping lawsuit, the music industry has never been short of controversy as ...

In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sony BMG CEO Rolf Schmid-Holtz explained that the music studio is considering launching an all-you-can-eat style subscription music service. There aren't a ton of details at this point, and it's not even clear if this subscription plan will ever materialize, but here are a few highlights from the interview: The service ...

BBC, DRM, and the iPhone: it doesn't sound very steamy. But things are definitely heating up in regards to the BBC and DRM. The release of BBC's new iPlayer brought with it the typical suffocating DRM restrictions, with the typical amount of outrage in the blogosphere. However, when the BBC released the new beta iPlayer software that allowed users to view BBC streams on their iPhone, the streams ...

digg_url = "http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/02/02/bbcs-iplayer-adds-support-for-firefox/"; Rumors have been swirling for months that the BBC was going to allow users of their iPlayer service to access the popular player on a computer or platform other than Internet Explorer for Windows. Well today British citizens are part way there as the BBC has announced their support for the Firefox ...