25. July 2008 by admin.

In a blow to music buyers, Yahoo Music is closing its doors. In addition, it’s shutting down its license servers. What does that mean to you? It means your Yahoo Music (which you thought you owned) will no longer be transferable to another computer. You will be stuck with it on the computer it’s currently on, until that PC dies. Your only option to save your music is to burn it to CD, then rip it back into audio files.

I recently decided to buy some music, but my requirement was that it be DRM-free. I only found one web site that met that requirement - Amazon. I can buy DRM-free MP3 files for 99 cents. The selection has been nothing short of amazing, and I’ve been able to find songs I haven’t heard since high-school.

From what I’ve heard, the music on EMusic is DRM-free. However, it appears to be a subscription site, and I wanted an outright purchase and not a rental. So far, I’ve been very happy with Amazon and highly recommend them. Remember, one of the ways to change things is to vote with your wallets…

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15. May 2008 by admin.

Since I base this blog on the continued erosion of your Fair Use rights, this link is appropriate. It is a treatise on Copyright and Fair Use, on Stanford’s web site. This site is huge, and has information on recent fair use cases relating to the internet, multimedia, and music. This is a site you’ll want to bookmark.

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