A few days ago, I got an email which confirmed what I've known since Feb of 2008. Walmart has dropped DRM (Digital Rights Management) from their .MP3 music purchases.
Colour me thrilled.
"...2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site." (emphasis added)
YAY!!!
To be fair, in the past Walmart has done some things that I was none too keen about. But this isn't one of them. I'm thrilled that they've done this.
But I'd be willing to bet that the RIAA was none too happy.
To be fair, if the RIAA had actually been giving the monies it had gotten through their lawsuits to the artists, I wouldn't have too much to say. From Wikipedia:
"In February 2008 it became known that the RIAA has been withholding roughly $400 million from artists for several years now. The RIAA gained the money through lawsuits claiming to defend the rights of artists, although none of the artists whose music was 'illegally' downloaded have received any of the settlement money.[49]"
Here's THAT link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_group_efforts_against_file_sharing
You can find it in the "Counterclaims" section. Methinks that the RIAA has a lot of explaining to do.
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