Monday, January 03, 2005
Downloading Blues
For Christmas, I got Diana Krall's (relatively) new album "The Girl in the Other Room." Well, that is to say, I got my wife's permission to download it, since iTunes confused her.
Well, I must say, I don't blame her. I just went to purchase it myself, and came out of the experience disillusioned with legal downloading.
I'm all in favor of legal downloading. I respect copyright rights (as a future copyright lawyer) and although I think the system should be overhauled, I accept the way the system currently works. I've never attempted a one-album download purchase, though (mostly because I am content listening to the music I already have), until today.
The main thing I was upset with was the Digital Rights Management (DRM)controls on your files. You can store your music on one computer and back it up to two other computers, save it to 10 CDs, and transfer it to portable devices at will. What the heck? What if this is a piece of music I want to hold on to for the rest of my life (as is the case with all music worth owning), and I imagine I probably won't have the same computer for quite that long? Or even the same three computers (or 10 CDs or whatever)? DRM is a nice idea, but it protects more than what copyright law legally allows you to protect. (I wrote a paper on this topic last semester--maybe I'll post it here if y'all want to see the legal basis behind the argument I'm making.) Once I purchase the music, I should be able to access it for the rest of my life.
On top of that, different sites sell you the music in different formats, none of which is good old MP3. So I don't know (sure I can look it up, but I shouldn't have to) whether the song will even play on my Rio Karma or on my computer. Napster indicated that I would need to download drivers for my Karma. Drivers? It's a portable music player, for crying out loud! It should be well-equipped to play music, and you should sell me music in a format that I can play without downloading extra software!
So what did I do? I ended up going to Amazon.com and buying a hard copy CD from a non-Amazon seller for $10.23 (including shipping). Twenty-four cents more than Napster, iTunes, and RealAudio charge, and I can keep it and play it forever. So much for the digital revolution.
Oh, and if you like the hassle of legal downloading, you should go to walmart.com, where songs are 88 cents and albums are $8.88, instead of 99 cents and $9.99 elsewhere.
Well, I must say, I don't blame her. I just went to purchase it myself, and came out of the experience disillusioned with legal downloading.
I'm all in favor of legal downloading. I respect copyright rights (as a future copyright lawyer) and although I think the system should be overhauled, I accept the way the system currently works. I've never attempted a one-album download purchase, though (mostly because I am content listening to the music I already have), until today.
The main thing I was upset with was the Digital Rights Management (DRM)controls on your files. You can store your music on one computer and back it up to two other computers, save it to 10 CDs, and transfer it to portable devices at will. What the heck? What if this is a piece of music I want to hold on to for the rest of my life (as is the case with all music worth owning), and I imagine I probably won't have the same computer for quite that long? Or even the same three computers (or 10 CDs or whatever)? DRM is a nice idea, but it protects more than what copyright law legally allows you to protect. (I wrote a paper on this topic last semester--maybe I'll post it here if y'all want to see the legal basis behind the argument I'm making.) Once I purchase the music, I should be able to access it for the rest of my life.
On top of that, different sites sell you the music in different formats, none of which is good old MP3. So I don't know (sure I can look it up, but I shouldn't have to) whether the song will even play on my Rio Karma or on my computer. Napster indicated that I would need to download drivers for my Karma. Drivers? It's a portable music player, for crying out loud! It should be well-equipped to play music, and you should sell me music in a format that I can play without downloading extra software!
So what did I do? I ended up going to Amazon.com and buying a hard copy CD from a non-Amazon seller for $10.23 (including shipping). Twenty-four cents more than Napster, iTunes, and RealAudio charge, and I can keep it and play it forever. So much for the digital revolution.
Oh, and if you like the hassle of legal downloading, you should go to walmart.com, where songs are 88 cents and albums are $8.88, instead of 99 cents and $9.99 elsewhere.
Comments: Post a Comment
