As I noted in DRM: Time for Legislation?, having a “protected key” or other copy protection scheme managed by an outside company restricts consumer rights. In that post, I noted Microsoft’s decision to shut down their authorization servers, effectively disabling the songs that people purchased (Microsoft later relented).

Now, 28.8 BILLION dollar cap Yahoo! demonstrates, once again, that not even the largest of multinational companies can be expected to live up to their obligations without the force of law being applied. They have announced that they are closing down their authorization servers on August 30, 2008.

Consumers who bought music with the special crippling code will have to take special and extraordinary measures to preserve their music. Yahoo has effectively stolen the rights to the music back from their customers with this move.

Just as government had to step in to ensure that manufacturer’s honored their warranties, legislation may be needed to ensure that companies live up to their responsibilities when they set up complex and unfriendly “copy protection” schemes.

[Edit 7/27/2008] Seems that Yahoo plans to do right by their customers. Although the plans are sketchy, InformationWeek.com reports that a Yahoo spokesperson said “You’ll be compensated for whatever you paid for the music,”. That sounds like a refund, but the article states the spokesperson can’t promise what form that will take.