Not being one to call for legislation very often, I would much rather see a market-based solution to the problem of Digital Rights Management (DRM), the 1984-esque term that really means “crippled and limited”. But I fear it may be too late.

DRM is really copy protection for video and audio, and like the efforts with copy protected software early in the computer revolution, it is a miserable failure. It doesn’t prevent unauthorized copying and distribution, a practice that is already illegal but widespread. It serves to inconvenience only those who legally purchase digital music or video products.

A case in point is Microsoft’s MSN Music Store. Microsoft, a 291.4 billion dollar company, chaired by Bill Gates - one of the richest men in the world - is stealing .99 songs from the MSN Music Store customers. From ARS Technica:

MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett sent out an e-mail this afternoon [4/22/2008] to customers, advising them to make any and all authorizations or deauthorizations before August 31. “As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,” reads the e-mail seen by Ars. “You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.”

This doesn’t just apply to the five different computers that PlaysForSure allows users to authorize, it also applies to operating systems on the same machine (users need to reauthorize a machine after they upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, for example). Once September rolls around, users are committed to whatever five machines they may have authorized—along with whatever OS they are running.

While it provides a good reason to never upgrade to another Microsoft product when there are increasingly viable alternatives, I am struck by the callousness of this decision. Surely within that 291.4 billion dollar company there is room for an automated license key system to enable their customers to continue to enjoy their music. After all, music is eternal, unlike Microsoft’s products that become obsolete due to the advance of technology. Bach and The Beatles are still played and enjoyed, even if Windows ME has blissfully gone to software hell, where it will be tortured for the appropriate amount of time (I just checked, and it has a few million years to go).

Music and film are art, and as such, are timeless. Once you purchase the work from the artist, it is yours forever. Any event perpetrated by a third party to interfere with that right is theft.

Our laws already require that manufacturer’s set aside reserves to meet warranty obligations; in the case of DRM for timeless art, it is not unreasonable to require manufacturers to ensure that whatever restrictions they impose can be serviceable for life.