With the release of Peter Gabriel's CD in downloadable form, DRM gets its next test. This will be the first time you can download an entire CD in 5.1 surround sound with a "try before you buy" feature. If you buy it, you can burn it directly to a Redbook CD on your computer.
This is clearly Microsoft testing consumer reaction to yet another way to package DRM. We'll see what they learn from it, and how they adjust. It's a long journey to get to DRM that works as it should, and how they will get identity and portability into it is what I'm really watching to see.
Meanwhile those who have gotten used to the fact that in the absence of digital identity infrastructure the Internet drives all intellectual property into the public domain, will have to tell us again how they are not stealing, it's just that they don't want people to quit giving them everything for free...
Posted by pbecker at September 25, 2002 02:28 PM