p2pnet - rss feed: Weedshare and DRM
p2pnet.net news:- “At OpenBusiness I read WeedShare is officially dead,” posts Marco Raaphorst in his blog over in Holland.
In an email, Raaphorst says he’d “never liked WeedShare because of the DRM” and kindly translated his article into English >>>>>>>>>
With its demise, an end comes to another new business model for musicians and fans. But I was expecting this to happen because there were a couple rather nasty disadvantages when using that service.
How WeedShare worked
A track of WeedShare, WMW fileformat (Windows Media Audio), could play 3 times for free. After the third time, a sales-order demand was send to the listener. A track you’ve bought you could also resell to friends, and you received percentage as a first purchaser, as well as a percentage which went to the musician/link and WeedShare. This system had the advantage that is was suitable for p2p systems. Passing on music ensured that more people would buy this music.
But it didn’t work well
The principal disadvantage of WeedShare was the fileformat: WMA (a DRM-ed version). This could only play on certain media-players, particularly Windows Media Player. My favorite foobar2000, as a result, won’t play those DRM-crippled files. Also, you couldn’t set up these files for your iPod—- couldn’t play them on systems like Apple, Unix or Linux. `Therefore: Windows only.
DRM, Digital Rights management, was used to track how often the song was played on a system and whether or it was properly licensed. A quote from OpenBusiness:
“Some time ago, Microsoft released a new version of the Windows Media Player, and it no longer worked with WeedShare files as it had in the past. Suddenly, WeedShare didn’t work, and if Microsoft didn’t change things, they couldn’t work.”
This is exactly my criticism concerning DRM: one day all your music files can become unplayable. A file bought at the iTunes can’t be played in most other non-Apple software. Also, DJs have a huge problem because most music software (NI Traktor, Ableton Live) can’t play these files.
And what if film-makers want to add this music to a movie? They can’t. DRM is not at all remix ready.
WeedShare cooperated closely with Microsoft, but that produced zero guarantees. One simple Windows Media Player update, and all was lost. The same thing can happen to any DRM file format, and we’ll see a lot more examples of this in the future.
Copy Control on CDs was also a mistake. Instead of an enhancement, it broke the format and most CDs became unplayable on car-systems, or very high-end equipment.
Today we live in a sharing economy. Sharing is an essential part of how we work together. It’s also a friends thing: sharing.
Now with the internet, our friends are all connected and it’s much easier than ever before to share files with each other.
In Holland, it’s legal to share and download music files for private use. The music industry thinks this is an evil act and they want to ‘protect’ it. But instead of adding DRM to files, the music industry simply should become more creative.
Napster was a smart idea. p2p and bittorrent protocols are great inventions. The Pirate Bay is a creative bunch of people.
There are new opportunities for selling music, but it’ll probably mean radical change. Nothing will be the same again. Downloads and file sharing are here to stay. We’ll discover new music because our friends tell us about it. Word of mouth, the most powerful thing in the world and also: free marketing. These are the things the music industry needs to focus on, but I’m afraid there’s a long way to go. A long way which simply will offer new business models build by smart music fans or bands which are offering direct downloads to fans.
In short: the music industry has to become more creative. DRM is not the answer, it is the bullet with which the music industry has shot itself in the foot. And that’s a painful mistake. CD-control, Apple’s iTunes and also WeedShare has shown the world that DRM is not a solution, it’s the worst way to kill your own business.
(Thanks, Marco)
Also See:
his blog - WeedShare: DRM zorgde voor de mislukkingy, June 11, 2007
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June 13th, 2007 at 2:48 am
I have to correct Marco.
In Holland it is definitely not legal to share music even fro private use. Downloading music for private use is allowed no matter who the uploader, distributor is. So downloading from P2P or Allofmp3 is all OK here.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:21 am
“…DRM is not a solution, it’s the worst way to kill your own business.”
I guess, the author of this article never locks his house, car and keeps his wallet on the front porch. DRM is just another lock.
June 16th, 2007 at 4:01 am
I guess you stupidly equate locking your house or car with DRM? Give me a break!
What a stupid statement that DRM locks are the same as physical locks on houses and cars!