Microsoft announces another new DRM: PlayReady

Amidst the aggressive and pugnacious consumer discussions over DRM, today Microsoft introduced yet another: PlayReady. Aimed at the mobile space, PlayReady DRM takes their "open" (i.e. platform) DRM strategy to the next level, by providing subscription, rental, pay-per-view, preview and "super-distribution" (huh? maybe they mean authorized redistribution) digital rights management to not only their own media formats -- as has been done exclusively in the past -- but to other codec standards, too, including AAC, and H.264. PlayReady will be backwards compatible with WM DRM 10, so your Vongo movies or Napster tracks, for example, should still authorize and play back. But now a new crop of carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Telefónica, O2, and Bouygues, are signed up with considerations for things that might be done with the DRM; of course, none of those other standards matter much if Microsoft isn't going to license PlayReady to the other vendors and software platforms that use formats like H.264 (and not WMA / WMV), but no announcements were made regarding non-carrier licensees, or whether PlayReady would make its way to the desktop, too.

[Cowboy Bob @ Feb 12th 2007 6:17PM]

wonder how long this takes to fail?

2, maybe 3 days?

[Kevin @ Feb 12th 2007 6:22PM]

Could MS have picked worse timing for this announcement?

[Emor8t @ Feb 12th 2007 6:34PM]

Hasn't MS run out of foots to shoot of themselves yet?




I already know the answer comes back no... but....jiminy crickets.

[Jon @ Feb 12th 2007 6:43PM]

It seems like an attempt for a global DRM system which, although is worse than no DRM, it's better than multiple incompatible DRM systems for individual platforms and formats.

[Ignacio @ Feb 12th 2007 7:13PM]

"It seems like an attempt for a global DRM system which, although is worse than no DRM, it's better than multiple incompatible DRM systems for individual platforms and formats."

Microsoft's. The same Microsoft who developed PlayForSure so all their partners could use a common DRM, and then ditched it for their own player (Zune), using a different and incompatible DRM scheme.

Yeah, let's trust them on this... (!?)

[peshue @ Feb 12th 2007 7:03PM]

Bill Gates doesn't like drm either. But no ones going to get on board with a system that doesn't use it.

[Kendall Tawes @ Feb 12th 2007 10:01PM]

Microsoft, do you want me to hate you? What happened to the Microsoft of the 90's? It's like you decided to follow every bad move Apple did with it's OS in the 90's but do it even after Apple's original fiasco. By the way, those bad decisions Apple made shot you to fortune in the first place.

Seriously, Microsoft...WTF? man. You made me a Mac user...I hope you're proud of yourself...D bag.

[blaQ @ Feb 12th 2007 11:05PM]

iFanatics havent yet flooded this post??...cummon. You can do it....ready...set...go!!

[Jon @ Feb 12th 2007 7:53PM]

Oh come now. They haven't ditched Plays for Sure. I use it everyday on URGE and those using Napster, Walmart, Yahoo Music, Cinema Now and many other online shops still use Plays For Sure.

Please keep in mind that no matter how much you hate DRM...it is because of MS DRM that all of the above stores even exist today. My personal experience with file downloads while not perfect has been a hell of allot better than the Original napster days. I suppose this could have the same effect for Cell phones. Just think...right now you can probably only get videos and music for your cell from your service provider. For me that means Verizon. Just think if this opened up some opportunities for other companies to also provide you with service options directly to your cell. That's competition which eventually would mean lower prices and more content as companies compete for your dollar!

I personally agree with Sansa's recent remarks...I think we need a unified DRM not the complete abscense of it. A unified DRM that allows for files to be used on different products with ease even though it has DRM. This is a much more realistic way to approach things than to think the Recording Industry is just going to throw in the towel on protecting their products.

Yes Zune and Apple DRM sucks cause it forces you to use either Ipod or Zune. But Plays for Sure and now Play Ready are very different approaches.

[john @ Feb 12th 2007 7:35PM]

I'm a firm believer that DRM is here to stay. So anything that allows various DRM schemes to play on a device that is move in the right direction. Kudos to Microsoft.

[Marian @ Feb 12th 2007 9:12PM]

"Please keep in mind that no matter how much you hate DRM...it is because of MS DRM that all of the above stores even exist today."
Really? Probably that's why eMusic.com still exists today (as #2 store in U.S.). Wait a minute, eMusic.com sells unprotected mp3s!



"My personal experience with file downloads while not perfect has been a hell of allot better than the Original napster days."
I suggest to switch to iTunes Store. The shopping experience will improve for you.



"That's competition which eventually would mean lower prices and more content as companies compete for your dollar!"
Yeah right! Like the healthy competiton around PraysForSure! Fortunately there was Apple around to set the prices for all the songs in their calalog to $0.99, otherwise you would have paid now at Napster $1.79 for the latest hit.

[tekdroid @ Feb 12th 2007 7:40PM]

with all the press-release talk, you'd think rights-removal was the second coming for Joe Customer.

Time for a new PlayReady wiki page.

[Buzz @ Feb 12th 2007 7:55PM]

This new "IRM" will be used for any type of digital data. Images, books, audio, video, etc.

IRM = Information Rights Management

No more drm...

[Chip @ Feb 12th 2007 7:57PM]

Ha. Just another ScrewedForSure(tm) if MS doesn't feel like it's going their way...

[Mike @ Feb 12th 2007 8:04PM]

It's not DRM if you charge others to use it...or in this case refuse to license it. That's why this online media scenario is such a cluster#&%@. Nobody wants to unite behind a single format or DRM method. RealMedia, iTunes songs, PSP videos...we might as well go back to 8-track and VHS before it's too late.

[Derek @ Feb 12th 2007 8:05PM]

Super-distribution allows you to give somebody a file with limited rights, perhaps a play count of 3, and then when their play count expires they can buy the song using the "you don't have a license" window that pops up in WMP when you play a file without an appropriate license for the operation you are attempting to perform.

Simple!

[Alex @ Feb 12th 2007 8:05PM]

Why the hell didn't they embed the Zune software within WMP11?

[Justin @ Feb 15th 2007 1:11AM]

I'm a firm believer that DRM is _not_ here to stay. But I couldn't care less because I wouldn't support it even if it was. Though I stood in opposition before, when a CD I bought infected a Windows work machine with Sony's nasty DRM I decided it wasn't worth it to support companies willing to screw faithful consumers so they can try to prevent some folks from pirating things. Which leads me to where I stand now: isn't it interesting that it's often easier to pirate stuff than it is to try to actually pay for it and endure restrictive crap?

I'd take more guilt in "stealing" if I weren't already being treated like a criminal.

[Intrepid @ Feb 12th 2007 8:25PM]

I like the idea of an 'open' DRM.

[resource @ Feb 12th 2007 8:44PM]

MS shut Viodentia down and the newest Plays For Sure IBX hasn't been broken.

Does anyone know of a FairUse4WM that works with WMP 11?

I wouldn't be so optimistic about this new DRM being hacked.

[Blake @ Feb 12th 2007 8:49PM]

DRM sucks. Makes me want to pirate stuff.

[timothystorey57 @ Feb 12th 2007 9:32PM]

how about "play with it" :)

[Jeff @ Feb 12th 2007 10:10PM]

Meh, I'm waiting for super-duper-distribution.

[funvin @ Feb 12th 2007 11:07PM]

If I lock my doors, do I mean I don't trust my neighbours?
DRM may not have worked till now, but media companies have full right to protect their property. Remember, you are buying "right to listen to their music" not their music.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Feb 13th 2007 4:30AM]

> [...] yet another: PlayReady.

He-he. I guess PlayReady doesn't Play. For Sure.

[tekdroid @ Feb 13th 2007 5:48AM]

the future is artists directly serving their fans, not these middlemen peddling their standards and reaping huge rewards while the artists are raped.

I agree with others that believe DRM is not here to stay.

[tekdroid @ Feb 13th 2007 5:55AM]

something else to think about:
FLAC & Ogg Vorbis: two superior codecs not given the time of day on RIAA-sanctioned devices:
Zune
iPod
Sony Walkmans
(etc etc)

Yet all-too-eager to be picked up by the likes of Korean and Chinese upstarts (and not-so-upstarts) because of its license-free nature, let alone technical superiority. Ogg Vorbis currently used in the engines on virtually every PC game you buy to avoid paying fat royalties to the patent holders.

Artists and producers/distributors can be doing the same for music, reaching their fans directly and without DRM - and only THEN we may see some art worth paying for escape the constricted creative confines of the major labels and the body they are all part of, the RIAA.

[keith waddington @ Feb 13th 2007 6:45AM]

it's one thing to have a single universal drm working on all platforms.

its another thing entirely to allow MS to control it, charge for it's use, and decide who gets to use it. MS control does not mean "open"!

Hasn't the whole MS DOS and Windows fiasco served as ample lesson?

It doesn't matter though: the MS empire has had it's day and the decline has begun. Nothing lasts forever.

keep smiling
waddo

[BAMF @ Feb 13th 2007 7:16AM]

I'm sure music distributors are falling all over eachother trying to get in line for this! Just about the time that we see some widespread adoption, MS will drop the Zune phone with it's own proprietary DRM and pwn PlayReady without mercy.

[Trent @ Feb 13th 2007 12:01PM]

BOO!!!! HISSSSS!!!!

Not going to buy....