Yahoo! vows freedom for DRM prisoners

Music Unlimited after all

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 29th July 2008 21:50 GMT

Webcast: Building Applications for the 21st Century

Yahoo! now says it will reimburse all those people silly enough to purchase DRM-shackled tunes from its failed music store.

On September 30, when it shuts down Yahoo! Music Unlimited, the company will no longer serve up DRM keys for songs downloaded from the online music store/subscription service. But unlike Microsoft - which is shuttering its own MSN Music store - Jerry Yang and crew have at least offered to replace these tunes with tracks that are DRM-free.

"You'll be compensated for whatever you paid for the music," Yahoo spokeswoman Carrie Davis tells Information Week. "We haven't said exactly what we will do, but we will take care of our customers."

According to Davis, this compensation will be handled "on a case-by-case basis." The company may return the purchase price of each tune or it may provide customers with unshackled MP3s.

So the Hoo is more noble than the Micro. After complaints from MSN Music customers - and the Electronic Frontier Foundation - Redmond has said it won't kill its DRM servers before the last day of 2011. But it will still kill them. ®

Free Download - The Reg Guide to Extended Validation