DigitalFreedom

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  • MusicNet and EMI to offer 1 million DRM-free tunes

    by 
    Joshua Topolsky
    Joshua Topolsky
    07.25.2007

    Hot on the heels of EMI / Apple's iTunes Plus offerings, and Amazon's DRM-free music store, comes news that the industry media-providing MusicNet service will be making a 1-million-song outlay of EMI and indie tracks to its waiting corporate partners, sans DRM. So what does this mean for us? Well, clearly the DRM-bucking trends that have been put into play are causing some serious ripple effects throughout the industry, and since MusicNet provides content to places like Yahoo! Music Unlimited, HMV Digital, and URGE -- not exactly small potatoes -- it's likely we'll start seeing free-er music popping up all over the place. Don't get too comfortable though, the RIAA will still find ways to make your life hell.[Via TG Daily]

  • RIAA wants -- surprise -- DRM on all digital radio

    by 
    Darren Murph
    Darren Murph
    07.21.2007

    And we thought these folks claiming that random electrical / WiFi / RF waves could turn you into a toad were off-kilter. Recently, a push has reportedly been going on in content guardian circles which would force anti-stream-ripping DRM software to be latched onto internet radio feeds everywhere, presumably to combat the elusive cash-stealing epidemic going on across the globe. As you'll recall, the RIAA has already demanded that XM-Sirius pay higher royalty rates because of (wait, we're still searching), but thankfully, the Digital Freedom Campaign stepped into action and proclaimed that "requiring webcasters to implement mandatory DRM technologies to prevent any personal recording of internet radio streams is an imposition on both webcasters and consumers." 'Course, this statement came after Mitch Glazier (of the RIAA) purportedly stated that there was no need to wait until the aforementioned ripping became "a big problem to start addressing it," insinuating that we should all just blindly deal with another restriction regardless if there's actually a problem that needs to be solved. Interesting logic, indeed.[Via CreateDigitalMusic]