Short DRM Rant
I am *so* freaking sick of DRM. DRM is the main reason I refuse to use the iTunes music store. (They've made their DRM-free tracks traceable, containing such things as e-mail address and full name of the purchaser so that's not even an option.)
And if you think that this would never happen to [insert company here], there's this article as well. I should buy something from Amazon MP3 just to make a point. If I buy music, I should be able to do whatever I want with it, and I should not have to worry about stripping personally identifiable information from a track I bought either.
P.S. Actually, when iTMS first came out, I did try it out and bought three or four tracks with a gift certificate I was given from a friend. The next time I formatted my machine, I didn't realize that iTunes had put my iTMS music downloads in a folder separate from my main music folder. I didn't think to copy this other folder over and I lost the tracks I'd bought (admittedly for free). Of course, I couldn't get them back without purchasing them again. Yeah, silly me, and not DRM-specific, but I had never had to worry about special downloads before. Though I've since made changes just in case I do decide to download an American Idol performance (David Cook ftw!) or something.
And if you think that this would never happen to [insert company here], there's this article as well. I should buy something from Amazon MP3 just to make a point. If I buy music, I should be able to do whatever I want with it, and I should not have to worry about stripping personally identifiable information from a track I bought either.
P.S. Actually, when iTMS first came out, I did try it out and bought three or four tracks with a gift certificate I was given from a friend. The next time I formatted my machine, I didn't realize that iTunes had put my iTMS music downloads in a folder separate from my main music folder. I didn't think to copy this other folder over and I lost the tracks I'd bought (admittedly for free). Of course, I couldn't get them back without purchasing them again. Yeah, silly me, and not DRM-specific, but I had never had to worry about special downloads before. Though I've since made changes just in case I do decide to download an American Idol performance (David Cook ftw!) or something.