"Every time there is an OS upgrade, the DRM equation gets complex very quickly," Bennett said. "Every time, you saw support issues. People would call in because they couldn't download licenses. We had to write new code, new configurations each time."

Boo Hoo. I feel so sorry for them. If ever there was an argument against DRM...

Anybody in the computer industry should have seen this coming. And guess what? It doesn't stop there. Every piece of media which requires external validation will come to this inevitable conclusion -- O/S product activation (XP, Vista, Server 2003, etc), other product activation (Radmin3, Norton/Symantec antivirus, etc), and any other product which requires an external server to give the user permission to install or use what they have already legally purchased.

All servers currently in operation will be shut down at some point in time. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. It may be tomorrow, it may be twenty years from now. The problem is that everything you have purchased which relies on those servers to give you permission immediately becomes useless. <sarcasm> Not that it would ever happen </sarcasm>, but this sure would be a great way for a company to force you to upgrade, wouldn't it? "Due to the extremely low utilization of those servers, it was not in the company's best interest to keep them operational" or some such BS to keep the regulators/watchers happy. And that, perhaps, is the best reason to avoid (if possible) anything which requires activation or relies on external servers in order to install or continue operation.

I expect the class-action lawsuit to be filed shortly after the licenses expire. Another group of lawyers will make millions while screwed customers get a $10 credit at the Zune shop...

FairUse4WM alleviate the problem????

And if such an obviously fly-by-night here-today-gone-tomorrow cash-strapped company such as Microsoft can simply tell some of it's paying customers to "sod off IDIOT FKWITS" what chance is there of anyone seriously believing DRM/authenticated music to be a legitimate and safe medium for laying down a lifetime's music collection?

W*nkers.

Silly me for believing such a thing.

Microsoft has only upset a few people with there MSN Music server shutdown.

What about all those poor, unfortunate Windows XP users who will not be able to activate their XP install when Microsoft switches off the XP activation servers. Do not forget MS Office and its activation process. No activation, no software!

Better to switch before its too late....or provide Microsoft free access to your bank account.

Genius idea - send Microsoft an e-mail saying you have bought these DRM music files, Microsoft send you several blank CDs and a letter of apology, problem sorted.

It's early so it seems a good idea to me anyhow!

Rather than Microsoft sending you a few blank CDs wouldn't it be better if they sent you the CDs with the music on that you have already paid them for. That way the time and effort would be spent on their part not the poor fool consumer who believed them in the first place. Also if there were any legal issues about the copying then it would be the music industry v Microsoft rather than the music industry v some poor consumer who's already been ripped off once already.

As others have said, this was a completely inevitable situation. Part of the payment that MS received was to keep those servers running. Now they've decided that they are loosing out of the deal they've decided to renege on their part of the deal. I'm sure the small print of the licensing Ts&Cs gave them the rights to do this, and the consumer no rights at all. I hope some judge somewhere tells them that this is not a reasonable contractual term and throws it out, then MS can get prosecuted for fraud, which is basically what is going on here. MS are saying we are happy to take your money, but we are not happy to provide the service you have paid us for because it's not making us as much money as we think it should.

Who's the pirate now?

This destroying of their DRM servers along with definitely dropping peoples favourite version of Windows (XP) is gaining them a larger base of people who are growing to hate Microsoft. I can easily imagine class action suits against Microsoft, as i'm sure theres no where in the T&C that says 'Yeah you can use the music you PAID for, till we get bored of allowing you to do so'!

They should at the very least supply either DRM support via their Zune store or provide DRM-free versions. If they think burning to CD then re-encoding is a good idea then they are retarded, as the audio quality loss will be notable. Things like this is why iTunes will stay for a very long time king.

And it will.

Apple have already nearly gone bust 3 or 4 times in the last twenty years.

Even if they stay active it's likely that within 5 years they'll be forced to sell DRM free music so their DRM servers will be a legacy support hassle for them they'll switch off as soon as they feel they can.

Then all the people who've bought music from iTMS will have a hissy fit and the general public will realise what a stupid idea DRM is.

I agree. Remember that in Microsoft T&C you haven't bought anything but the right to use <product> until they want to take it away, which they could at any time.

""Every time there is an OS upgrade, the DRM equation gets complex very quickly," Bennett said. "Every time, you saw support issues. People would call in because they couldn't download licenses. We had to write new code, new configurations each time.""

Erm, yeah. That was pretty obvious before you began, wasn't it? "I'm sorry, we can't be bothered to put in the work to keep our own systems running" isn't a valid excuse for trashing peoples' purchases.

I was telling people about this danger when DRM first appeared, but people scoffed. After this and the Google Video fiasco, how can anyone trust DRM-laden content? Fools if you do. Demand DRM-free - for video as well as music content, it's the only way to stop the consumer being screwed.

Why are you all so mad at Microsoft??

Firstly, their T&C specifically stated this was a possibility so anyone buying music from them agree to this, more fool them. (I admit they should somehow port the server licenses to the zune platform or pay someone like napster to take them off their hands, if they respected their customers more than their desire to kill competitors.)

But secondly, and most importantly... Microsoft have just killed DRM for us! If ever there was proof DRM is bad and pointless, this is it. Thank you Microsoft for actually providing a compelling argument against DRM even the labels cant talk their way around. So yeah AmazonMP3 begun a revolution, this event is the point in history when Joe Blogs learns *WHY* DRM is bad. If you ever tried explaining what was wrong with DRM to your average paytard, they never really understood.

So once again, I salute you Microsoft.

(Paris, because she's just getting DRM..)

since when did people still pay for music ?!

I could be wrong here, but I seem to remember the modern Microsoft OS being given the fun feature of being able to call home, to keep it's DRM in check.

Any precedent which shows Microsoft callously closing authentication servers on customers it no longer deems profitable to support can never be seen as a good thing.

The death of future DRM at the cost of allowing corporations to build planned, compulsory, complete obsolescence into their current products while the market still accepts these mechanisms is certainly not deserving of a salute...

Well, well ... no documentation of purchase eh? Says a lot for going back to buying CD's and ripping them, that does.

After sifting through many forums and supposed help pages regarding this issue I quickly discovered there are more support in removing DRM than a Micro$haft solution to the problem. So one hour and a couple of clicks later and my entire collection of music is now DRM free.

I, like many other conned fools just feel that I paid for my music, I didn't grab a quick torrent which would probably have been a higher bit rate and now I have to go to the shop, buy 700CD's take the next 2weeks of work so I can burn the whole lot, only so I can rip them off the very format I didn't bother buying in the 1st place.

I think its a sad sad day when you have to resort to "illegal" ways to secure your own property.