<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/40778f56-0907-41e7-a403-9530a3ebd83b/5A9AD4E0-6A21-457A-952F-851B2FFAC776/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/90282/the-online-music-ripoff.html" href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/90282/the-online-music-ripoff.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.smartphonethoughts.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/90282/the-online-music-ripoff.html"><H3> <A href="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/218559/the-online-music-ripoff/page1.html" target="_blank" linkindex="16" set="yes">The Online Music Ripoff</A> </H3></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/90282/the-online-music-ripoff.html">Why is DRM so contentious? Surely it's designed to protect the rights of artists</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/90282/the-online-music-ripoff.html">The problem is DRM doesn't affect the pirates, who upload and download DRM-free files often ripped directly from CD. Instead, it affects legitimate buyers</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/90282/the-online-music-ripoff.html">I think most people who know anything about DRM hate it. They hate dealing with the limitations of the technology, both intentionally built-in or as a direct result of poor technical planning/implementation. Unlike a good protection scheme which is invisible to the end user, DRM is too limiting to the average customer, and does nothing to stop hardcore music pirates. Plus, when a <A target="_blank" href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/88952/the-day-the-msn-music-died.html" linkindex="18">store</A> <A target="_blank" href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/90108/yahoo-music-to-reimburse-for-drm-d-music-when-site-shuts-down.html" linkindex="19">goes</A> <A target="_blank" href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f5/mtv-closing-urge-merging-rhapsody-22907.html" linkindex="20">down</A> and its licenses stop renewing, the customer is the real loser. Sure you can burn your songs to a CD and re-rip them (or do it <A target="_blank" href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/29915/convert-your-drm-d-music-with-soundtaxi-platinum.html" linkindex="21" set="yes">virtually</A>), but the process is time-consuming and you lose audio fidelity. Another option is to free your purchased music using tools like <A href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f314/fairuse4wm-strips-windows-media-drm-30118.html" linkindex="22">FairUse4WM</A> (above) or Hymn, or just buy DRM-free in the first place.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/90282/the-online-music-ripoff.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.smartphonethoughts.com/img/C6071109-F4A2-45F8-993B-065C283DDC05" alt="" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/5A9AD4E0-6A21-457A-952F-851B2FFAC776/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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