Wal-Mart to cut the cord on DRM downloads

USA: Wal-Mart will soon shut down the servers controlling reauthorisation of purchased digital rights management (DRM)-protected WMA music files, Ryan Halford, the company's computer buyer, indicated on a Wal-Mart blog.

An e-mail sent to Wal-Mart Music customers, a copy of which was posted on the blog BoingBoing, indicates the shutdown will occur 9 October.

For several months, Wal-Mart's online music store has sold MP3 files with no DRM restrictions. Before February, however, the service sold protected WMA files. If those files were loaded onto a new computer, they would have to check in with Wal-Mart's servers via the Internet as an antipiracy measure.

The retail behemoth warned its digital music customers that as a result of the server shutdown, they would need to burn any tracks purchased before last February onto a CD. Backing up the WMA files onto a CD will enable purchasers to reload them onto any computer. However, failure to do so means users will not be able to play the songs on an unauthorized system.

The result: If the customer buys a new computer - or even swaps out his or her existing computer's operating system - any WMA files purchased from Wal-Mart prior to last February have no way of calling home to verify that they aren't being pirated, rendering them inoperative.

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