spiralfrog

[matt_r_baker]

i saw the recent article on BBC news today about itunes and spiralfrog the new free music download site. i read more on the bbc web site http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5294842.st m
but this says "Under the agreement, Spiralfrog will offer Universal's songs online in the US and Canada"
does this mean that int he UK we will not be able to take advantage of this service???

[fo3nix]

Perhaps not immediately, no. But it's only scheduled to start in december of this year anyway.

I'm not sure it's going to be too great anyway; apart from adverts that are meant to come with each song (if the reports are correct), it's also fairly likely the songs will come with some sort of crippling DRM, like most of the other 'legal' sites.

[Mattk]

drm ?

[fo3nix]

Digital Rights Management, or (unofficially), Digital Restrictions Management.

Songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store for example have DRM put on them (part of the contract I believe to get the record companies to agree to online downloads). That's why they only work with iPods. Or you can get other DRM'd files from the other legal online places like Napster, which use Microsoft's version of DRM. Hence, the songs you've paid for will only work on plays that support Microsoft's DRM system, and thus not iPod.

It's better for everyone except perhaps the music industry execs to have no DRM. Though, I'm quite librelist in my views and believe that copyright laws are mostly a load of rubbish anyway, and that it shouldn't be illegal to share things you enjoy...

[fo3nix]

Oh and I forgot to mention its the reason why you can only use your iTunes music downloads on upto 5 computers at once and things like that. Basically it's a way of the industry controlling what you do to try and stop people from copying the music and putting it online for everyone to listen to.

[fo3nix]

I've since read that the music is likely to expire after a few months. To get it again you'll have to re-download presumably and go through watching/listening to more adverts. I predict a failure.