Posted by Technobarbarian on 11/16/54 11:37

"Stumpy" <perilmung@spamnet.con> wrote in message
news:16Byf.2849$Hd4.1351@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> >
>> Actually--they did--you just didn't bother to read it.
>> http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/catalog/servlet/EulaServlet
>> It's facinating reading really. It says they can do pretty much whatever
>> they want to you and that if you use their service you have agreed to
>> their terms.
>>
>> TB
>>
>
> Still saw nothing about ActiveX or the Installshield.

Of course not, but if you read the thing carefully you'll find
references to this sort of thing and you did give them tacit approval.

Still feel violated.
> Macrovision or MicroSoft may have written the programs, but WalMart
> tricked me into inviting them onto my machine.

Yep, it's not much better than Sony's rootkit infection. The music
industry doesn't seem to understand that they're way past the point of
shooting themselves in the foot. They get enough sheeple going along with
whatever they want to do that it passes right over their head. Microsoft had
nothing to do with this turkey, it came from Macrovision:
http://www.macrovision.com/products/flexnet_installshield/index.shtml They
strongly suggest that the software should give you an opt out. Apparently
Wal-mart wasn't listening.
>
> This was just a $5 trial. No great loss. I'm still looking for a cheap,
> safe and easy source for tunes. Preferably MP3s. I hate the WMA - DRM
> system.

At this point no one is selling legit' mp3s of heavily promoted music,
that stuff all comes with DRM. There are a broad array of alternatives.
Amazingly the Russians have some of the better deals going right now.
www.allofmp3.com for example. Don't give them you credit card info and it's
reasonably safe. They exist in a legal gray area. Personally I prefer usenet
binary groups. Grabit is a good freeware binary harvester. Newsbin Pro is a
better shareware harvester. Us hardcore junkies use a premium server.
Buzzard news has a 1.5 GB a day account for $7/month. The top of the heap is
probably Giganews at $25/month for unlimited downloads and around 70 days
retention. If you ISP provides a usenet server with binary groups the
retention span is probably pretty short for binary groups, but you can still
snag a lot of good stuff. OTOH www.eMusic.com sells perfectly legit' mp3s at
something well under a buck. Because it is fully legitimate their selection
is limited. There is also a ton of legitimate free stuff out there. The main
problem is sorting through all the junk to find the good stuff.

TB

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