Broken DRM's

Last year Google pulled the plug on its DRM'd video service (see our post on that here). The lesson for anyone buying DRM's material was clear - at some point, your supplier is going to pull out and you will be up sh*t creek sans digital paddle.

Anyway, looks like Microsoft has now joined the happy club - from Ars Tech.

Customers who have purchased music from Microsoft's now-defunct MSN Music store are now facing a decision they never anticipated making: commit to which computers (and OS) they want to authorize forever, or give up access to the music they paid for. Why? Because Microsoft has decided that it's done supporting the service and will be turning off the MSN Music license servers by the end of this summer.

Microsoft's decision to turn off the MSN Music authorization servers serves as a painful reminder that DRM ultimately severely limits your rights. Companies that control various DRM schemes, as well as the content providers themselves, can yank your ability to play the content which you lawfully purchased (and now, videos) at any moment—no matter what your expectation was when you bought it.

Update - Microsoft defends the decision over here - tough sell....

I was surprised that there was no real legal challenge against Google last year, so clearly there is little protection for customers against DRM unplugging.

That possibly leads to a way to bring about its downfall - lobby to ensure that DRM user companies must keep their customers' media going, or pay for upgrade - ie raise the exit costs to a point that its just not worth risking using DRM.