ZDNet Thinks that DRM Devices are CRAP
David Berlind the editor of ZDNet enthusiastically explains in a video why we should boycott DRM based devices, telling us that they should have named DRM “Content Restriction, Annulment, and Protection or CRAP for short. The basis of his 100% justified rant is that all of these closed DRM schemes are not compatible with each other, locking you into one type of DRM, giving the examples of Microsoft’s Janus, Apples’s FairPlay, and Sony’s ATRAC DRM systems. This similar to my response to a New York Times article on the same topic.
Berlind suggests that we boycott all of these devices containing DRM that limit our use of music. While that may be very hard to do since most devices are DRM enabled, I would suggest a different approach to this boycott.
- Do not purchase any DRM media. Buy music from the store and rip the CDs yourself. You will be able to put them on any device you want.
- Purchase only devices that support UMS. Devices that are UMS require no drivers and do not lock you into one computer or one operating system. Be wary of Microsoft MTP and Apple devices that lock you into one operating system or one computer.
If you watch one thing on the internet today please watch this video and join the boycott.
[ZDNet Video via dapreview]
Comments
Steve on March 29, 2006 7:35 PM
I agree with ZDNet, and therefore with you about the perils of DRM. I'm looking at buying a new mp3 player pretty soon, and having UMS capability is among my top priorities, and certainly a deal-breaker. Do you know of or can you assemble a list of current models that have UMS? It's pretty painful to have to dig through a bunch of reviews, or Google for the model name and UMS, especially because a lot of reviewers use other terminology (drag and drop, etc.).
While it's a good rule of thumb that certain manufaturers such as iRiver tend to make UMS-compliant models, I'm pretty sure I've read a review of at least one new iRiver model that either doesn't do UMS, or needs a firmware update to do it.
Short of making the chart, I'd appreciate recommendations on an MP3 player with the following features: * Great sound quality; * UMS; * Gapless or near gapless mp3 playback; * Good battery life (I use my Dell DJ for 9 hours a day at work, and the battery meter doesn't even move); * Both folder *and* metadata playback (i.e., I want to be able to have the player automatically play through all of the folders starting at the beginning, but I also want to be able to play by artist, genre, playlist, etc.)
aaron on March 29, 2006 8:49 PM
I agree with the above poster - this site really needs a UMS-compatible list of players so that people can find it, it's not at all obvious.
turbonegro on March 31, 2006 1:11 AM
Nice that some of the biggerish brass turns the thumbs down on DRM.
About Steve's wanted UMS compatible DAP, I suggest you take a really close look at iAudio X5L, loooong battery time, UMS, near gapless, greatest audio quality in almost all reviews. AND Rockbox is right about to take off on this one, see www.iaudiophile.net for more.
Qnewbbie on September 2, 2006 6:13 PM
i'm sure you guys have heard of Fair Use4WM.... do a search
Oregon on February 16, 2007 7:40 AM
Hi!
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