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Posted by Technobarbarian on 05/03/06 13:45
<davenetman@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1146653310.474151.165490@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
> What exactly is DRM? I mean I know it's a digital rights protection,
> but what exactly does and doesn't it allow me to do?
It all depends on what the copyright holder and the company that sold
you the file decide. Slatts provides some good examples and as he notes, if
you read the fine print, they can even change your "license" at any time.
You are not buying the file so much as you're buying a limited license to
use the file.
>If a song file has
> DRM, can I still copy it,
Probably, but this is limited and sometimes difficult to do.
> burn it to a cd,
Probably, but only a limited number of times. A common route out of
this mess is to burn the file to a music CD that will play on any CD player
and then rip it to an MP3.
>play it on an mp3 player,
The answer depends on which MP3 player you bought and which service you
bought your files from.
> etc?
Not much etc is allowed. In some cases your license to the file can
expire after a given date and it's just so many worthless ones and zeros
that won't play on anything. If you read all the fine print Apple warns you
to backup your licenses because if you lose them you lose the ability to
play the files and they don't care. In some cases the answer to all of your
questions is no, or at least no unless you have the right mp3 player. It's
all up to what the seller decides and they can change their minds at any
time. For some of us here this doesn't sound like such a hot deal so we go
other routes. MP3s are easy to get without paying some Russian ripoff site.
TB
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