Why I don't buy crippled media files from Apple
by Volker Weber
Repeat after me: DRM is bad for the customer.
Comments
Got a few episodes from The Simpsons in HD a while ago. They played well on my "old" plasma screen connected to the computer. Until they did not play anymore because the device doesn't support whatever the name of the DRM standard is that now is required. From what I can see, Apple changed the settings for files I've purchased already. Let me repeat^^: DRM is bad for the customer.
You need to update these ols songs to the new DRM free versions from Apple which has been the norm or awhile now!
Jeff, what do you see in the left column in iTunes?
So, where do you buy "uncrippled" media files?
Joe
Wherever they are available.
DRM is bad for the customer, but the big media companies believe it's necessary for them. They fear that removing DRM will lead to a drop in sales. Don't blame Apple for providing you with content under rules imposed upon them by big media.
iTunes success isn't based on DRM. It's based on making it quick and easy to get what you want at a reasonable price. People will pay for content when there is significant hassle or time needed to obtain it from alternate distribution sources. We are in the era of instant gratification and people are not prepared to wait for a friend to come over with a DVD, BluRay or USB thumb drive and most home internet connections have such slow uplink speeds that sharing a movie with a friend for free involves a substantially longer download time than getting from Apple.
The TV and movie people obviously don't believe it.
Whatever is bad for the customer is bad for business.
I also get this message because I once had a second iTunes account and have a few things still active on it. Unfortunately there hardly is any DRM free video service at all and renting movies online is cumbersome and quite expensive (although I can tolerate DRM in this case). So far I bought 1 film in iTunes and recently rent one for 48h. Done right companies could make much more money with me.
Record companies have learned that. I am not sure the movie industry gets it.
"Wherever they are available."
I was hoping you had a better source than one video. It is kind of disingenuous to dump on Apple as if they were the only supplier of crippled media files.
I agree. I'd like to see DRM dumped for video. But that isn't likely to happen, especially seeing that HDMI comes with built in DRM. The movie/tv world jumped ahead of the music industry back when everything was still VHS. Just no one noticed. Maybe now they will, but so far, with our few exceptions, it is pretty much still un-noticed.
Kind of sucks.
Joe
Sorry to disappoint you. Crippled media files are not worth a penny. They are terrible products. If media companies refuse to sell better products, it's bad for their business.
@David: you can blame Apple. They have a lot of power over publishing companies. That is, because they own millions of accounts with valid Creditcard numbers.
If Apple pressed it, the movies would be DRM free. But I think, Apple itsself has no interest in dropping video DRM. That would mean, you could buy the movie in iTunes, but view it on a non-i-device...terrible thought if you ask me...:)
Happy New Year!
Volker, this usually means you downloaded the files with one AppleID, but your computer is activated for another AppleID.
Logging out from the second one and activating the computer with the first one fixed this for me.
Seems that iTunes "forgets" that it is activated for the second one, when you change IDs...
Simon, sounds plausibe, but it's not the case. The files were downloaded using the only Apple ID in use: vowe@vowe.net. My iMac and all my iP* devices are activated and authorized using this Apple ID. I am also logged into iTunes with this ID.
Hi, i got the same shit with the Coldplay EP a few days ago. Same "not authorized" error.
Have you checked (Via Ctrl-i in iTunes) that the account name in the file is correct?
It might also be a problem with your internet connection. It looks like iTunes checks the playing rights with Apple, when you try to play or move a video file. Even when your own connection is OK, Apples servers are usually 100% busy after christmas. Retrying later might fix the problem.
It's CMD-i on a Mac, but yes, I did.
Can you try to play this on your mac? Perhaps the keys will only downloaded the first time you play this...
Yes, the video plays just fine in iTunes. However:
Can we just agree that this is very fucked up? It's not like I need to watch the smurfs on my iPhone.
