Wal-mart Will Be Taking Its Drm Servers Offline

[cdanteek]

Bye Bye to DRM...click...here

 

Wal-Mart informed its customers that it will be shutting down its DRM servers on October, which should be perceived as good news by customers. But some users may be left with somewhat useless music files that were purchased before February of this year: DRM-packed songs that will not be backed up until October 9 cannot be transferred to another PC thereafter and cannot be recovered in the case of a system crash of a new installation of the PC.

 

Even as we slowly say good-by to digital rights management (DRM) in digital music downloads, the transition is likely to bring some additional inconveniences for consumers. Wal-Mart notified its customers via email that it will be shutting down its DRM servers on October 9. The problem with this move is that the DRM that was included in WMA songs that were sold prior to February 2008 locks down music files to the device they are stored on: These cannot be recovered if they are lost once the DRM servers are gone, Wal-Mart said.

 

[Beerman]

A long while back, someone gave me a free coupon for songs from Walmart (I think it was on a toothpaste box). I don't even know what I downloaded but it was 2 or 3 songs.

Yesterday I received this:

Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases

 

 

 

 

 

We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart's MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.

 

 

 

 

 

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for using Walmart.com for music downloads. We are working hard to make our store better than ever and easier to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walmart Music Team