Apple and EMI Still an Item

Posted on May 29th, 2007 in DRM, Technology, Diversions by Craig

The pieces are in place, according to rumor, for Apple to release the entire EMI music catalog, excepting the Beatles, DRM-free on Tuesday, May 29. Hey! That’s today.

I’ll probably pay the 30¢ to upgrade my collection, not only to get DRM-free copies of songs I bought, but also to upgrade from the 128kbps files to the higher quality sound that comes with 256kbps AAC encoding. This should improve the sound of my classical and opera tracks especially, but I’ll probably upgrade everything I’ve bought at the iTunes Music Store (which is only a tiny portion of my entire collection).

Update May 30th: Here’s the press release from Apple. Ars Technica has indications that the debut of DRM-free music on Apple’s site is in progress, albeit slower than planned.

DRM: Past perfect, future imperfect

Posted on May 26th, 2007 in DRM, Technology by Craig

An interesting web site all around, Paleo-Future ponders digital rights management, past, present, and future.

Once More, With Feeling

Posted on May 4th, 2007 in Entertainment, DRM, Technology by Craig

Eric Bangeman at Ars Technica gives a short summary of the recent HD DVD content restriction brouhaha, including links to the Digg part of the story.

Pandora’s Box

Posted on May 4th, 2007 in Entertainment, DRM, Technology by Craig

As this photo essay from Wired magazine makes clear, you can’t turn back the clock on the cracking of HD DVD content management.