Comments on: EFF: Yahoo Music should compensate customers

Yahoo Music comes under criticism for deciding to stop supporting DRM keys. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says Yahoo should have learned from Microsoft's mistakes.

[deep0dark]

A-holes.

[zeryck]

No kidding! September 30th? That's really soon, and it's annoying enough as it is. Sometimes it seems like companies forget their most important asset: consumers.

[eBob1]

Open MP3 tracks are copyright-protected; they just aren't copy-protected.

[tcardone05]

I'm a paying member of their Unlimited To Go service until November 2008. I am expecting at least a partial refund.
I, however, was prepared for this, and used Tunebite. While it may technically be illegal, it seems preposterous that they just drop support for my music in the middle of a subscription.

[johnmichale1]

I had made a account and uploaded the music onto my music player, and if you don't want to upload your own music,you can search on other users playlists and take any songs you want! It works for piczo,myspace,facebook,bebo etc at www.hypster.com

Myspace Playlist?

[sadchild]

no surprise there. but the good news is that the 10,000+ mp3s i've downloaded from usenet continue to work just fine. and the used CDs i've bought for $2-$5 each are still sitting in my basement, waiting to be re-ripped as needed.

DRM=BS. $10/month for unlimited downloading. want to support the artist? go to the show and buy merch while there. cut out the middle men who are mostly just out to screw you.

[streamOG]

Greg,

More drama from the ill informed. Why don't you point all this ire at Apple and iTunes. It's funny how you never hear about the EFF or NEWs.com going after Apple but they have more than enough time and resources so slam MS and their partners.

[sandonet]

StreamOG,

You are being unfair I don't go after anyone. I hear about news and I write about it. For example, I waited all night in line for an Apple iPhone 3G and Apple suffered a system glitch. I wrote about it.

I heard from people that Steve Wozniak did not, as he said he would do, wait all night in line for the 3G. I wrote about it. I have pointed out Apple's missteps and triumphs just as I have Microsoft's.

I'm slanted when it comes to gun control, abortion, child welfare, Kobe Bryant, green issues and USC. As for Apple and Microsoft, I have no allegiances to either. Really.

[Dalkorian]

Not that I'm advocating Apple's DRM scheme either, but why are you so willing to slam Apple for the rape that M$ and their partners are giving to their customers? Apple hasn't pulled any DRM servers are are not threatening to. M$ and their partners have. Period. That's the issue here. M$ and their partners in the "PlaysForSure" *SCAM* have finally decided to take the opportunity to cut and run, to rape their customers for ... well, being their customers.

Apple has done nothing wrong here and is in no way part of this mess. Implying otherwise shows what a worthless shill you really are.

Speaking of being ill informed ... but don't worry. Just go tell your masters at M$ that you have done their evil bidding. Maybe they'll actually pay you like they said they would.

[bukobill]

Rhapsody does not exist in Canada,where I live,so I don't even have that option.Hope Yahoo changes their minds.Keep up the good work Greg.

[digitalshaman]

give me a break ... EFF attacks patents out the self-interest that their own project "patent busters" might be eliminated by legislation instead of standing out for inventors & small entities who really DO rely on the patent system.

so here they are demanding compensation for use of DRM - which consumers signed-up for knowing full well that these systems would not prevent leakage of media ...

EFF - What do you really stand for? Freebies? How are those privacy protection efforts - did not hear a peep when the ACLU was making the big push re:FISA ... Own up and provide some transparency and position papers that have some modicum of consistency!

[nvanlani]

I believe that my MusicMatch music player was superior in almost every way to other products, including Media Player, iTunes and Yahoo Music. It's folder layout, ease of use, etc. Yahoo purchased it, ruined the music player, ruined the folder structure, their product was buggy, their store crappy. So now they're selling again to another music player and website and using the same business genius that ruined the economics of MusicMatch...Hmmm...why am I not surprised?

[LewisCunningham]

Even worse, I tried to burn my music to CD (as yahoo recommends in the letter), and the stupid jukebox won't recognize my CD writer. I can record from explorer and from another music tool, just not from jukebox. How much does that suck!

Support suggested I uninstall, delete a handful of directories and then reinstall. Bah.

LewisC

[podatyahoofurshur]

What a piece of work! They already screwed me over by buying MusicMatch, then discontinuing the service and trying to force me to a feature-reduced-yet-more-expensive yahoo music account, and when I chose not to do that, they canceled my drm on hundreds of dollars worth of music downloads through my musicmatch client --thank you very much.... so I finally signed up for yahoo music... paid for another 107 songs and now THIS! I don't use a CD player. I want my friggin computer-based music. iTunes is a control freak, and this is what I get for doing the honest thing and actually BUYING my music! My new best friend as of tonight is gomusic.ru DONE! And, I'm cancelling my yahoo.com email.... and my yahoo advertising campaign... and my yahoo answers account... and i'm switching to pidgn for instant messaging. Best of all, I'm selling my yahoo stock... at a loss... just to get rid of it. I'M DONE WITH YAHOO..... what a bunch of yahoos! What about you? Are you with me????