Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection
Found on Boing Boing on Friday, 26 September 2008
Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they're repaying your honesty by taking away your music. Unless you go through a bunch of hoops (that you may never find out about, if you've changed email addresses or if you're not a very technical person), your music will no longer be playable after October 9th.
"Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash."
Be smart, shop at S-Mart. Seriously, if you have not realized until now that all the legal ways of getting music screw over the paying customer royally, then it's about time. Good luck trying to sue Walmart or the labels behind it for nuking a product you've paid for without giving you a refund. It would be so easy to let you download your old WMA songs for free as MP3; but that won't happen. Guess why? Right, most will pay again for what should be good will.