Arif over at Itch.in just posted the details of the DRM from Coldplay’s new album. Basically it looks like it won’t play in the following:
- MP3 players (you supposedly can’t rip it)
- Some Windows PCs (and it writes a registration file when it first runs)
- Mac computers
- CD players that have CD-R/RW capabilities
- Some portable CD Players
- Some DVD Players
- Some car stereos
- Some games consoles
You don’t see these rules until after you have bought it and opened the CD and the last rule is that they won’t accept refunds or returns except for manufacturing errors. Nice.
What’s left? I don’t use a regular ‘vanilla’ CD-Player anymore and I certainly want to play it in my car and most probably on my iPod. So, you know, I quite like Coldplay and was thinking of buying their album, but now I definitely won’t because I can’t do what I want with what I’ve bought. Of course, the absurd thing is that once a single DRM-stripped version hits the BitTorrent network (as I am sure it already has) the whole DRM system is worthless. This has all been done in the name of “Anti-Piracy” (piracy is such a misnomer when it comes to digital content anyway) so that we can “enjoy this high quality music”. Except now I won’t be enjoying any Coldplay, thanks. Well, not any that I actually paid for.
Boing Boing have the story too and there’s a link to an offer Skype have going on to leave Coldplay a message. I suggest as many people as possible let them know how much money they’ll miss out on in rights thanks to flat sales.