Yahoo Music to Turn Off DRM Server, Apparently Learns Nothing From MSN Fiasco

Here we go again. PC Magazine reports that several months after the widely-reported Microsoft MSN Music DRM disaster, Yahoo has announced that they will shut down support for the Yahoo! Music Store on Sept. 30, 2008.

That means that anyone who spent good money to buy digital music tracks will be screwed. “After the Store closes, Yahoo will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for music purchased from Yahoo Music Unlimited, and Yahoo will no longer be able to authorize song playback on additional computers,” the company said in a Thursday e-mail to customers.

So if you bought music, it’s only going to work on the computer you currently have it registered on. That’s it; you can’t upgrade your computer or transfer the music to a new cell phone, or you’ll lose all of it. “At the very least, this announcement is further evidence (if such evidence were needed) that DRM is just bad business,” Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Corynne McSherry wrote in a blog post Thursday.

The strangest thing about this is that Microsoft already backpedaled. So why is Yahoo doing it?

(Image credit: Clipart.com)

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