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DRM is ****, RIAA Says

For years the RIAA has defended the use of DRM, much to the dislike of millions of honest customers who actually paid for their music. Now, in a shocking turnaround, the outfit seems to have come to the realization that DRM does more harm than good and has officially declared its death.

riaaThe digital music landscape is evolving continuously. Just two years ago RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol defended the use of DRM on digital music because customers would benefit from it.

“DRM serves all sorts of pro-consumer purposes,” he said at the time, without going into detail about the alleged benefits.

However, in the year that followed the numbers of consumers calling for DRM-free music increased and more labels and music services started to offer music without digital restrictions. Still, the RIAA was not convinced that there could be a future without it, and predicted a comeback for DRM last year.

Quite the opposite happened. Although DRM is still present in the majority of the legal music stores, most of the big players have decided to ditch it. Most importantly Apple announced in early 2009 that all music sold via the iTunes store would be free of DRM. This time even the RIAA doesn’t believe that it can be resurrected.

Jonathan Lamy, chief spokesperson for the RIAA declared DRM dead, when he was asked about the RIAA’s view on DRM for an upcoming SCMagazine article. “DRM is dead, isn’t it?” Lamy said, referring to the DRM-less iTunes store and other online outfits that now offer music without restrictions.

Update July 20: Yes, it seemed to good to be true and it is. We just learned the the RIAA never used the word dead in its reply to the reporter. Lamy told TorrentFreak that he only said that there is almost no DRM on (downloaded) music anymore nowadays. In other (our) words: it’s an endangered species, not extinct.

When the most vocal forefighters of DRM say so, it must be for real. Although this is the first time that the RIAA have actually said on record that DRM is dead, other players in the music industry have seen the light before them. Most notable IFPI, who said earlier this year that stripping DRM would “significantly boost download sales.”

In this we have to agree with them. All DRM has ever done is annoy consumers who actually paid for their music. No single piece of DRM has ever stopped anyone from pirating music, it’s quite the opposite as the music industry now realizes.

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  • Ma Long

    What a shame… I used to love DRM… RIP DRM

  • uu

    fuck yeah
    now let’s see if the MPAA will see sense

  • Dellum

    IT’S A TRAP!

  • HCM

    No, RIAA, -YOU’RE- dead.

  • Acidworm

    Bummer, now I’ve got no excuse not to download songs legally. MY bank balance hates the riaa.

  • 4nd

    Took ‘em long enough. ^^

  • Torrentia

    Yay! Hopefuly this will mean legal sites that give drm free music,

  • Dellum

    In this we have to agree with them…—

    You didn’t agree with them they agreed with you.

  • Dellum

    In this we have to agree with them…—

    You didn’t agree with them they agreed with you.

    Still it’s a trap, this is after all… the para-state organization known as RIAA.

  • Dellum

    In this we have to agree with them…—

    You didn’t agree with them they agreed with you.

    Still it’s a trap, this is after all… the para-state organization that engages in corporate terrorism known as RIAA.

  • Ghostofchris

    @3

    lol

  • Dellum

    Damn it! delete the second and third comments… and also this one. and please, include an edit option.

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  • diarRIAA

    Oh no. No DRM? We’re all doomed. ALL doomed. :’( What next? Locusts??? :O

  • abn

    Great, just great… So what we need to turn this Copy protective poop off the media, is to have monopoly firms starting to ditch it… Great, so in order for RIAA to get a freaking clue, giants firms need to become much more pro-consumer, than they already are… Alright, I doubt I can wait that long…

  • Cynthia

    *tags this article Sudden Outbreak of Common Sense*

  • DRM

    SUCK MY DICK DRM

  • GG

    Shit, I have no excuse now not to pay for music :-)

  • JM

    thank god

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  • Nokio

    rofl. progress always comes painful and slow. it will still be many years before organizations like the riaa and mpaa are dead. they still have way too much money coming in…

  • brizzl

    Stating the obvious. News at 11.

    Now when does the MPAA realize that region codes and encryption on Blu-Ray are doomed too?

  • truth

    Good news, senseless people have gotten a clue. Now how long until the movie studios follow suite, I predict 10-20 years.

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  • hardy harhar

    anyone of you ever had a drm-ed music file? :P

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  • JimmyTango

    RIP DRM LOL

  • Anonymous

    yay, lets all spend 10,000 on music and fill up our ipods!

  • Hom3r

    Guess they finally realized DRM creates more pirates than customers (in more than one way)

    Buy DRM Music -> Get new hardware -> try to move your music -> You’re a Pirate

  • deadmanamerican

    hello drm…see you in hell drm…

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  • Osno

    They’re probably also saying that they have this new pro-customer format they call MRM that will forever end piracy…

  • Celesto

    Who knows, how long the RIAA will be alive…

  • Sendaii

    SAY WHA–?

    Does April Fool’s Day happen late in the USA? Has Jonathan Lamy fallen down the stairs and banged his head? Is it the end of the world as we know it?

    I never thought that I’d hear the RIAA say that. Still, it doesn’t raise my opinion of them, which is just below that of stepping in a fresh dog turd.

  • Phrantik

    R.I.P. He surely will be missed. I loved it since it never actually stopped pirates but lovely people who use their cash to buy music. Unless it’s Souldjaboy, then they deserve to die then.

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  • StormCrow

    Well, they do say even a broken clock is right twice a day. Tho’ when it comes to the MAFIAA, I’m not inclined to believe ‘em on the exceedingly rare occasions that they *do* speak the truth.

  • Sanity

    Wait, the RIAA says “DRM is dead”?

    Awesome, now I can finally start planning that skiing trip in Hell. On the downside, all those flying pigs will make a mess of my car.

  • Poppy

    Let’s hope game publishers realize this soon as well.

  • RoestVrijStaal

    I think RIAA say it only to gain some popularity.

    More strangely is that DRM will be used @NeoTPB:
    http://torrentfreak.com/ex-grokster-ceo-teams-with-new-pirate-bay-owners-090716/:
    ” WMA-encoded and fingerprinted music tracks ” = DRM

  • Anonymous

    “Bummer, now I’ve got no excuse not to download songs legally. MY bank balance hates the riaa.”

    NO! Giving money to these criminals? HELL NO!

    Boycott the entertainement parasites until they die including crapywood!

    Let’s get ride of them before they get ride of our societies.

    BOYCOTT RIAA/MPAA!

    NO CD! NO DVD NO DOWNLOAD NO MOVIES NO MOVIES THEATER!

  • Anonymous

    RIAA is Dead, DRM Says!

  • r0ck

    DRM is a schroedinger cat. You never know if it’s still alive as long as there is a white little touchscreen box to put it in.

    Watermarks are still a pain in the butt. Every song bought off iTunes has personal information encoded in it. So re-encoding everything you buy is still a must if you wish to share it.

  • Craig

    I’ll still never buy RIAA shit because of their terrible public relations and idiotic business practices.

    Spread the boycott, keep your pirate flags up and support your favorite artists in other, more direct ways.

  • DTS

    DRM dead? I wouldn’t count on it… this is coming from the same group who said no new individuals were being litigated since last August.

  • cynic

    the RIAA is known for not saying exactly what they mean. it’s always good to pay attention to what they DON’T say. Maybe the DRM won’t be in the music files, but in the software that plays it (Windows?) or on the hardware (Trusted Computing, by chance?) and they haven’t said they’d stop suing people or stop lobbying governments to change their laws, or stop pushing for ISPs to implement 3-strikes rules…

    Sorry, there’s no history of these people ever telling the truth about anything. I see no reason to take their words at face value. They haven’t earned my respect yet, and i doubt they ever will.

  • Phoenix

    now it’s RIAA’s turn to Die

  • Anonymous

    I don’t understand the point in DRM digital files when you have a CD that never comes with DRM because it was made 20 years ago and don’t support it LoL

  • Anonymous

    @39 Jul 20, 2009 at 00:55 by cynic:

    Good point I was thinking the same thing, to them to drop DRM is probably because they think they found a new way.

    There will be news soon of something wrong LoL

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  • Bobe-On (about shnoz)

    @Sanity wrote:

    “Wait, the RIAA says ‘DRM is dead’?
    Awesome, now I can finally start planning that skiing trip in Hell. On the downside, all those flying pigs will make a mess of my car.”

    LOL… There room for me? =)

    I’d like to take this opportunity to extend an embarrassing hug to all my fellow “pirates” on here (love the reads) and of course Torrentfreak staff. (Love the eyes, newsgirl).

    If I’m talking to a friend and someone sticks their shnoz in an attempt to ‘Manage’ my communicational rights, you can be sure one of us will bite off his shnoz.

    As for the newstory; DR without the M will live on forever.
    Communication/info-exchange is our nature. We’re social creatures. Learn, Adapt or Die.

    What’s/Who’s next?

  • anon

    Great we are making baby steps here… I will stop downloading illegally the day I can legally download my music in a lossless DRM-free format. There is no reason for this not to be the case already. Bandwidth is no excuse. Production cost is certainly no excuse… What is the problem with distributing digital media with the same quality as that of a physical copy?

  • Lachlan Hunt

    Now it really is only a matter of time before the MPAA reaches the same conclusion. Especially now with Zooks offering DRM free films for sale, albeit with an unclear legal status, it is the first sign of its demise. The question is, how long will it take?

  • Bobe-On

    If it’s open source/libre/creative commons (maybe commercial– unsure), you already can download music in (I think) better than CD quality, with FLAC (free lossless audio codec) being one format. From what I hear, CD quality’s actually pretty bad and antiquated.
    In any case, I hardly believe in buying art/music because of my tentative philosophy that (the intent of) money (making a sale) muddies the purity of the concept and might invite all kinds of “hucksterism”. (see ‘huckster’ in Wikipedia)
    In any case, I’ve yet to hear an argument that sways me. Having to make a living doesn’t count.

  • Jeff

    I find it amusing that everyone here has forgotten exactly how shady the RIAA really is.

    Think people! DRM was discovered by some bored programmers who got to delving deep into CD roms produced by SONY years ago.

    So now: Our situation- the RIAA claims to be killing off DRM, the deeply rooted software secretly placed on our software in the first place.

    IF this is actually going to happen it will, I predict, happen for one reason… to bend us over even harder.

    This is exactly what a politician would do in the event of a failed campaign- bury the old, devise a new scheme and try again. the RIAA is simply coming out in a small, discrete press-release and saying “Ok, we were wrong! Sorry guys, seriously, it will not happen again, Just from now on… don’t seach for any NEW types of stronger DRM or encryption software (Because either you won’t find it or you will make us look like fools if you do)”

    The RIAA has a history of using tactics such as these- and they will not stop. They have not given up, then will not give up and they will NOT stop using some type of on-disc proprietary system to try to stop people who bought a entertainment medium fair and square. They do not care about us- they care about MONEY.

  • We are anonymous

    yes victory will is ours ,
    RIP DRM you annoyed many consumers and forced them to pirate their music, and for this we salute you

    wow the death throes of the RIAA

  • annoyance

    RIAA speak with forked tongue

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  • anon

    Well its about damn time I have something decent to say about the RIAA

  • .neo.styles|nvDX

    We don’t need DRM. Shutting down the systems of distribution will be alot more effective and beneficial to the custemor. Piracy is based on distribution and if you remove that from the picture, the whole ethic ceases to exist.

  • Bobe-On

    Jeff, you have some points, but the RIAA’s a small penny ante operation compared to file/info-sharing– even if you add misguided anti-file-sharing cops, lawyers and politicians, etc.. They might act big because they’re small and they know it.
    We have many on our side– far from just us “pirates”– and include many of the above-mentioned professionals, including university profs, lawyers, and probably even cops. Not all cops have their heads up their asses. :)

  • diarRIAA

    The Beast has many heads, but each head is lethal and will strike you when it believes your guard is down delivering a fatal blow.

    Never trust the RIAA or MPAA. They’re out to try to get everyone; male or female, boy or girl, young or old, innocent or guilty, and they won’t be happy until they own us all and have us completely under their control.

    I don’t trust them. I never have and I never will. They’re cooking up something else which is no doubt a big advantage to the consumer. Yeah right…I was born yesterday.

  • Anonymous

    Really? Is DRM the TRUE meaning for you pirating your music? I seriously doubt that. I think the real reason is you want it for free because you know you CAN get it for free with minimal chance of getting caught, I mean who would pay for something if you can get it free?

    2 lemonade stands next to eachother.

    One of them is selling lemonade for 10c and the other has no attendant looking after it.

    Do you pay 10c to the attend of shop one for a cup or just take the the whole jug for free from shop two?

  • kiwishare

    What?,”not all cops have their heads up their asses?.”id believe that as much as id believe the RIAA’s latest statement!

  • BananaFella

    I can’t help but think that this is some sort of plot against pirates.

  • Dial Up Modem

    First Post !

  • That Person!

    DRM is gone.But after all this time they realized it was bad? Something is wrong. But it wont stop pirates from getting free music. The RIAA thinks pirating will just go away like magic if they announce that “DRM is dead”.

  • Anonymous

    Do you pay 10c to the attend of shop one for a cup or just take the the whole jug for free from shop two?

    This seems wrong the right comparision would be.

    Do you pay 10c to get and exact same copy of the juice or you just copy it and leave the original there.

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  • Anonymous

    Do you pay 10c to get and exact same copy of the juice or you just copy it and leave the original there.

    Would you pay 10c for the juice over there or just make your own that is equal in every form or way to the other paid one?

    I rather make my own and it probably will cost me more then 10c too LoL

  • Anonymous

    Well whatever I was thinking along the lines of buy a single/album or download an discography, which is usually what people do (as far as I know).

  • Mercer

    Trust no one

  • Anonymous

    59 Jul 20, 2009 at 03:17 by Anonymous

    Well whatever I was thinking along the lines of buy a single/album or download an discography, which is usually what people do (as far as I know).

    Would you pay for radio? why?

  • Anonymous

    Why is that music on the internet have to be compared to CDs when its anything but like it?

    The most close thing to the internet before is radio and TV why people compared it to CDs?

  • Anonymous

    Even the RIAA knows that since they tried outside the U.S. to force Canada to impose the same regulations that broadcasters have.

    No success of course but still shows that those muppets know the difference.

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  • GrX

    somebody should get in touch with this new piratebay founder GGF and explain this to him before he kills the new site lol..

    wow lets see who would of thought drm was a bad idea, what or who in their right minds would think making people buy something then setting restrictions on what they can do with that purchase was a bad idea?

    oh wait.. everyone

    i remember their speeches DRM is great as without it we can’t give a customer a premium service and offer them more choices.. always made me laugh reading the last part, giving a customer more choices just how much was these people puffing on the crack pipe when they wrote this???

    how is making something restrictive or less useful a better choice for customers..

    i once had a bat and ball game going with emails too and from the riaa/mpaa over drm.

    my argument was name me one other household thing you buy that has any kind of stupid restrictions.

    can you imagine the following.

    TV = limiting how many hours you can use it, or what days you could use it, or what room it can be used in.

    Microwave = Refusing to heatup a certain brand of milk, or pizza, or limiting how many times you could use it that day.

    A LawnMower = it allowed you to cut the front lawn but refused to cut the back lawn lol

    A car = Refusing you entry because you’ve used it more than 4 times to go to work today, and mon, wens, friday you couldn’t drive on a certain road.

    if someone said all this too you before you bought it you’d think they was crazy, belonged in the looney bin

    But yet for years and years customers actually Accepted it!! and paid good money for it and hardly even complained about it..

    As crazy as it sounds its the same thing as DRM on music or movies.

    Funny that Apple remove DRM from everything on their music saying they hate DRM but yet their other media i.e. Movies/TV shows have DRM and wont remove it now or in the future… talk about backwards.

    DRM is back we hate it.. we’ve removed it on music but we refuse to remove it on movies or other media..

    lol it’s black and white you either love it and use it or hate it and remove it, you can’t say you hate it remove it half, but half keep it

    i understand why this happens now

    Every human being that gets promoted to CEO of a company has to sign away every single bit of common sense he has, then he is made to walk though this Machine that makes them plain dumb on a daily basis.

  • Anonymous

    @61

    No, no I wouldn’t buy a radio. Why? Because I don’t listen to the radio I have (which I didn’t buy either).

  • lll

    But DRM is very much alive and well on Blu-Ray, whose built-in update ability has been making it harder and harder for pirates to crack the ever-changing encryption.

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  • .neo.styles|nvDX

    Never trust the RIAA or MPAA. They’re out to try to get everyone; male or female, boy or girl, young or old, innocent or guilty, and they won’t be happy until they own us all and have us completely under their control.
    I love how you portray the RIAA as a bunch of demons, just because they make pirates face the reprocussions of their own actions… and that’s exactlty a pirates worst enemey : accountability.

    You only have to be afraid of them if you are stealing things.

  • PetFoodz.Info

    Apple\Amazon: We’re removing the artists from our stores if you don’t let us sell DRM free..

    RIAA: We think your bluffing you can’t compete without our artists..

    Apple\Amazon: Fine read our press release then..

    RIAA: (1 day later) Uhhh ok fine..

    They were forced to drop DRM they had no choice.. Or they would of been strictly in the red market wide..

  • PetFoodz.Info

    @55 …

    Speaking for myself I wouldn’t take the whole jug.. If the station was self serve I would take one cup for free.. Not the entire jug like you would.. It is called sharing.. Not whording..

  • PetFoodz.Info

    @70 Neotroll Wrote:

    I love how you portray the RIAA as a bunch of demons, just because they make pirates face the repercussions of their own actions… and that’s exactly a pirates worst enemy : accountability.

    You only have to be afraid of them if you are stealing things.

    Actually that is not true.. Especially if you live in the EU nowadays.. Running an open wifi AP NeoTroll? On an ISP rolling dynamic IPs (Which is the majority of ISPs)??

    Your explanation of why so called “pirates” should be afraid is moot..

    While everyone working for the RIAA\MPAA may not be demons.. Actions speak louder then words and everybody from the infant to the grandparents, innocent and guilty have been targeted by the RIAA\MPAA. Their actions speak volumes when millions of people are no longer willing to conform to carrying plastic diskettes around with them anymore.. What you are seeing here is that the RIAA is now finally backing down from the use of DRM , largely by force of the major retailers. As they have no utter choice in the matter.. If they did DRM would still be flying of the CD presses with crappy bands\artists in tow..

  • mister_playboy

    Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out!

    Thank goodness.

  • PetFoodz.Info

    NeoTroll Wrote:

    We don’t need DRM. Shutting down the systems of distribution will be alot more effective and beneficial to the custemor. Piracy is based on distribution and if you remove that from the picture, the whole ethic ceases to exist.

    Im not sure if you understand the way stuff is distributed these days.. Or even back when Napster was closed down..

    Let me take you back in history.. By the time Napster servers were taken offline it was already way too late for the music industry. Although the Napster program itself didn’t search for different nodes I found a few programs ready to go the day the servers went down.. I immediately logged on to a different node and all was well again.. I used Napster for at least 1-2 years after it died..

    In today’s world their is no need whatsoever for trackers of any sort.. Or any other form of centralized server for that matter.. Bit Torrent is a remarkable protocol that will most likely never die in my lifetime unless something remarkably better comes along.. That being said trackers are just an easy way for people to stay connected and get the same torrent file everybody else has.. The MPAA\RIAA knows that if they drive the community underground it could be devastating for them.. So they play the game and go after a few big dogs and users here and there.. They will never ever stop piracy so attempting to close down every single distribution point is a waste of time as they already know and you seem to lack..

    As for benefiting the customer, its rather easy.. If you are an artist.. Distribute your music on your own terms in your own ways.. If you make a deal with the RIAA your rights are gone along with the majority of any bit of profit as well.. Give it away build a fan base then make 1$ instead of 1 cent per download..

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  • Mori [FR]

    I guess everyone needs sparks of wisdom occasionally.

  • Anonymous

    69 Jul 20, 2009 at 04:11 by lll

    But DRM is very much alive and well on Blu-Ray, whose built-in update ability has been making it harder and harder for pirates to crack the ever-changing encryption.

    Search for blu-ray iso and tell us what you see. Seeing is believing LoL

    The only people who can’t watch is the poor sods that pay for it and want to stream it or use and media center to do it, those people are out of luck.

  • Gss

    @45 Isn’t itunes music DRM-free? The reason I download music with bittorrent is because I don’t have the money to pay for it. So whether music is DRM-free or not really makes no difference to me. Either way, I can’t pay for it.

    BTW, how does RIAA plan to stop copyright infringement without DRM? Kind of odd that they would come out and say this.

  • naoner

    The RIAA have finally discovered the internet, those they work for now ARE the internet/major ISPs.

    That’s why they’ve announced no more lawsuits, and that’s why they’ve now announced no more DRM… next, thanks to DPI, they will announce NO MORE FREEDOM..

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  • Gss

    What’s with this new propaganda about torrents not needing trackers? What a bunch of hogwash. If torrents didn’t need trackers, then they wouldn’t use them. Anyone who tells you that trackers aren’t needed is most likely an RIAA shill. Tell them to fuck off.

    The reason why they want you to believe that trackers aren’t needed is because trackers made it possible for even the layman to use torrents. Hackers have always been able to share but trackers made everything easy for people.

  • Anonymous

    DPI only works on unencrypted channels.

  • anonymous

    I wish it was the RIAA scum who are dead!

    Back to dreaming.

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  • Vyhd

    Far too little, _FAR_ too late. I’ll see you guys on The Pirate Bay.

  • Anonymous

    We are the RIAA
    we do not forgive
    we do not forget
    we are legion……..

  • plusaf

    right, again, this time after about four and a half years….

    http://www.plusaf.com/lessons/dearriaa.htm

  • Think About it

    EULA computer interaction agreement

    By interacting with this computer you are hereby granting all rights and privileges to any information imparted to this computer. If you are not the official copyright holder then you agree to be the one actually making any copies. You also agree to license the bypass of any DRM or copy protection existing on any information. Connection to this computer is provided as is with no warranty as to damage……

  • moot

    a-holes. lol

  • Entertane.com

    http://www.entertane.com – the easiest site for torrents (movies, music, software, games, xxx) – faster, simpler – and you can search all your favorite torrent sites. No registration needed.

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  • Anonymous

    @Neotroll
    “You only have to be afraid of them if you are stealing things.”

    Oh!

    In that case, filesharers have nothing to worry about, since the act of copying a digital file causes no theft of anything. Whew. :D

  • Jono

    “significantly boost download sales.”

    My revenue simulation models calculates the cost of lost potential revenue to the recording industry at $115 billion annually.

  • scuzzmaster11

    hahaha. bought one drm song in my life from verison, will never do that again. the vz staffer that explained to me it was drm’d basically told me to go d/l it for my pc, since the phone file wouldn’t move. too funny. goodbye drm!

  • scuzzmaster11

    *verizon

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  • Anon

    Great!
    Now take Securom and all the other faggotry off of games. DRM for games has actually gotten WORSE in the meantime.

  • BigFreakinNews (www.bfn.im)

    Well I’ll be damned. Good. Not a whole lot of people like DRM, and a whole lot less people like the RIAA.

    I posted this story on http://www.bfn.im.

  • Anon

    @70
    #70

    RIAA. You only have to be afraid of them if you are stealing things.

    Nazis. You only have to be afraid of them if you are jewish or disagree with their ideology in any way.

    Ho-hum. Yay for our Neo-Nazi.

  • Anonymous

    @12 Agree to include a edit option, but only allow edits within an hour or so.
    I think thats more in the hands of wordpress though, dont know realy.

    And DRM, amazing they finaly realize what the people has thinked and told them for years and years…

  • vyvyan

    @85
    fuck eula and all corporate twats.
    I use open source thingys

  • vyvyan

    @87 don’t you know iframes are evil?

  • Nicolas

    Sign the petiton @ http://www.ruinedpiratebay.com to keep it free guys!

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  • albinoblackrabbit

    the riaa have finally started to see sense! what happens to all the drm crippled files that people have?

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  • warrener

    Although Apple would like you to believe that they removed DRM from iTunes for the benefit of consumers, in fact, they were forced to do so because the type of DRM they were using was ruled illegal in certain countries. If they hadn’t removed the restrictive DRM, they would have had to withdraw iTunes from those countries.

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2087065,00.asp

    http://www.out-law.com/page-7691

    http://www.out-law.com/page-7689

  • Jasper

    if they even couldn’t see that that doesn’t decrease ”piracy” they call it that way, i call it file-sharing!!
    how can they than be right about file-sharing it isn’t bad!
    PEOPLE LOVE CONTENT AND WANT TO SHARE IT WITH OTHER PEOPLE SO THEY CAN ENJOY IT TO THAT’S WY WE SHARE!!

    SHARE-
    IT’S FAIRE!

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  • xXx

    soo.. like.. does itunes just hand out regular ol MP3s?

    Could legal sites that dont blow serious nut sacks be on the way?

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  • Anonymous

    RIAA is dead

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  • JustMe

    that RIAA cake is a lie.

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  • Youcanbeuntraceable

    The DRM is a LIE!!

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  • mattias

    RIAA is Dead

    …is what the headline should’ve been.

  • originalbryan

    lol @Dellum

  • Cujo

    drm was a failed attempt

  • DRM

    Why does everyone hate me? – I’m not dead either. I wish I was. *sob*

  • Anonymous

    How terrible, I was utterly ecstatic when I learned that I could buy something online and be restricted in how I use it.

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  • Derek

    The DRM is dead! Long live Run DMC.

  • CDR levy of canada

    THEY LIE
    instead they are DRMing your internet

  • Bystander

    So the RIAA finally realized that alienating your customers by trying to strongarm them into buying multiple copies of the same product was bad for business. Uh DERRRRRRRRRRHHHHH! (wipes drool)

    Now maybe we can convince them that suing people for $80000 a song isn’t really in line with “reclaiming lost sales.”

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  • ;)

    DRM is dead. Paul is dead. Elvis lives.

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  • Anonymous

    @warrener

    Apple never wanted DRM. They have no reason to. They’re in the business of selling hardware, so it doesn’t particularly matter to them where your music comes from as long as you put it on an iPod. The labels, however, demanded that they implement it or else they wouldn’t license their music for sale on iTunes.

    If the Norwegian Consumer Council was putting pressure on any one by complaining about Fairplay DRM, it was the labels.

    Unfortunately, despite the pressure, the only way the labels would aggree to dropping DRM was to introduce bullshit variable pricing that makes it so a ton of tracks now cost $1.29.

    Which doesn’t really matter since buying from the iTunes store means supporting the MAFIAA, so it isn’t an option anyway.

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  • JS

    To those making comments to the effect of “now I have no excuse not to pay for music”:
    No one should ever have to pay for music, you could almost call it a human right. If you want to support a band or musician, go to their live shows or just donate some money. Physical experiences of live music can’t be downloaded, but anything else that can be downloaded should be and inevitably will be free.

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  • lowedude

    OMFG aliens are landing on my lawn!!!! help!!!! nuclear winter!!!! praise god praise god!!!!!

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  • Playboyman

    Nye Bye DRM, You WON’T be missed at all. :)

  • Pan

    R.I.P DRM

  • Susan

    I downloaded ONE song off of Itunes and because of said DRM, I could not load it onto my non apple MP3 player, I could not burn it onto a disk, I could not do squat with it other than let it take up space on my hard drive and occasionally play it. As much as I am happy to see DRM go, I am suspicious as to what the RIAA will come up with next to prevent pirating… I don’t trust them for nothin’!

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  • iamdez

    If the RIAA is dead… then Kazaa’s new DRM/WMA files are really going to bring the newly reanimated service back to nonexistence.

  • Anonymous

    121

    How does DRM prevent you from burning the files as a data disc? I can understand if it crypts the files to prevent file conversion, but I can’t see how you are unable burn the files just as a data disc?

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  • Androsszit

    Tell that to EA who just announced C&C 4 will only be playable when your connected online. One more game I’ll have to pirate to show these bastards that making games impossible to play for honest customers will hit them where it hurts; the pocket book!

  • sharealike

    i used to just remove drm’s from the songs but now im glad they’re dead

  • Anonymous

    Another victory for us brothers

  • Ray

    Here’s what I don’t get. Why is the RIAA charging radio stations when the music radio stations is usually provided for free anyways. On top of that, it promotes albums more than anything.

    The RIAA should just vanish with their overpriced fees and DRM bs. It’s worthless and a waste of time and money.

    This is coming from a musician and a man who runs a record company too.

  • steve

    Sooooo basically they are just charging people for the .torrent files… stupid.

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  • steve

    ^^ woops i posted on the wrong article

  • Obvious

    @juice stand economists – dumbasses, do you have any idea how little it costs to make juices and sodas? The marginal cost is pretty close to zero, you’re paying for the packaging and marketing, just like with music. You should be stealing your juice too, apparently.

    @116 mr. apple apologist – you’re thinking of the Apple of the last century. Apple of today makes lots of money from that App Store and will do anything to keep you from ripping it off. You can’t share apps, even free ones, can you? DRM.

  • jami

    If only someone would tell the audio book industry. Audible still won’t sell you anything but an aac file. Yeah, I could burn it then rip it to get Audible audio books to actually play on my mp3 player. Or I could just not buy some garbage-y product that expects me to do the hokey pokey for two hours to use it.

  • MrGz0r

    No all we need them to do is say there a failer and we be all good

  • Audible Disuser

    As long as Audible uses drm, they’ll never have my business. Amazon and iTunes both do now, Amazon first, and now iTunes now that everything is in aac plus, a better sounding format than mp3. I’ll buy music and books willingly, but not when drm is involved, no exceptions!

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  • Anonymous

    The poor sods that bought DRM music, books or anything are the ones left in the cold when servers go down, the player stop being manufactured.

    See the very recent case of the ebook that had his writes erased from Amazon and erased the book that people paid for LoL

    Then someone ask why people don’t like DRM and they go to filesharing instead.

    “Anything that can be done in software can be done in hardware and the reverse is true”

  • diarRIAA

    @neo.troll

    Once again, you’ve even managed to out-OUT-stupid yourself. Your level of ignorance and stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

    So let’s just say you’re on the internet. Someone has somehow managed to spoof your IP address, and goes around downloading music and movies. The RIAA/MPAA tracks *YOU* down and sues you for whatever millions of dollars.

    You go to court and even if you have done NOTHING wrong, you can still be fined and convicted even without hard evidence.

    That’s right. You don’t have to do anything wrong. You’re guilty…and there is no proven innocent.

    It can happen you. It’s happen to many others. You aren’t immune.

  • Anonymous

    Copyright is like that fellow that put a sign in the exit door that read “Greatest Attraction in the World!”, and when people step in they found themselves in the outside.

    Anyone who believe in copyright will be bit by it in some form or another.

    Markets come and go, there was a time that salt(Sodium Chlorate) was gold or when excrement from doves had armed guards to safe keep it so the kings could make gun powder.

  • Anonymous

    shut up and get out neotroll no ones intimidated by your crap

  • Anonymous

    The music industry is an asset that society no longer needs.

  • Anonymous

    Why is ‘dead’ censored now? o3o

  • djshelter

    I can’t believe Jonathan Lamy really said DRM is dead.

  • Anonymous

    The update put a smile on my face, it would be to easy to have the industry give up DRM, things only are fun when the other side wants to fight.

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  • James

    I stop buying music because of the RIAA and co.

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  • Jonathan Lamy

    DRM isn’t dead, it just smells funny.

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  • surfer

    2 days later… you dont read /. ernesto?

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  • solidox

    I’m still not paying for music. Most all the stuff I like is out of print, extremely limited, hard to find anyway.

  • Anonymous

    lol
    the **** makes it look like they said DRM is shit

  • ju

    god i lol’d

  • Anonymous

    @Obvious

    App Store? Who the fuck said anything about the App Store?

    I was talking about the iTunes music store. But I think that was Obvious. :D

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  • abn

    Hey, RIAA-slowpokes, wake up!

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  • anonymous

    i bought a cd with DRM once!

    it was also the last CD i bought! if it weren’t for that maybe i would never have found “other ways” to get my music.

    now it’s just too late for me, DRM or not i just don’t buy CD’s nor do i ever intend to.

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  • CDR levy of canada

    THEY LIE
    instead they are DRM’ing your internet

  • Jluna

    Just another example of how the RIAA are out of touch with what the people want, and how they want it.

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  • stream this film!!
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  • TerribleTony

    Who are the RIAA?

  • Anonymous

    @NEOSHITE:
    “We don’t need DRM.”

    We? LMFAO. Let’s get real now. DRM? It’s not a choice you have. We chose. You lost. Whether you NEED it or not is irrelevant… you’re NOT having it, that’s what WE decided. WE tell YOU. Now, consider yourself told good and proper.

    “Shutting down the systems of distribution will be alot more effective and beneficial to the custemor. Piracy is based on distribution and if you remove that from the picture, the whole ethic ceases to exist.”

    Let us know when you’re shutting down these “systems of distribution”. Start with the Pirate Bay and Mininova. LMFAO.

  • Anonymous

    @NEOSHITE:
    “We don’t need DRM.”

    We? LMFAO. OK, DRM… It’s not a choice you have. We chose. You lost. Whether you NEED it or not is irrelevant… you’re NOT having it, that’s what WE decided. WE tell YOU. Now, consider yourself told good and proper.

    “Shutting down the systems of distribution will be alot more effective and beneficial to the custemor. Piracy is based on distribution and if you remove that from the picture, the whole ethic ceases to exist.”

    Let us know when you’re shutting down these “systems of distribution”. Please go ahead and start with the Pirate Bay and Mininova. LMFAO.

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  • Axl

    DRM is not dead, it just smells funny

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  • Peter BP

    RIAA: You’re fired.

    Use Jamendo and Magnatune. Gove the poptarts (Britney Spears, Metallica etc) the finger.

  • DICK REALLY MATTERZ

    I’m just waiting for the fucking record industry to die already.

  • Grok

    I guess they don’t bother to listen to reality until it’s at least five years too late. Everyone else knew that DRM was bullshit, and even the unbiased evidence suggested the same. The only way they can succeed is to pull their heads out of their asses long enough to think instead of drowning in the smell of their own shit.

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  • Pedro

    the truth can be read here:
    http://forums.mariosworld.org/

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