MARK YOUR DOWNLOADS AS "HOBBLED"

As you know, I'm fond of describing music which has digital rights management rubbish built into as being "hobbled", on account of how it doesn't work properly. Now, it seems, providers of this broken stuff could find themselves having to confess that you can't use your their music when you buy it:

The UK government's All Party Parliamentary Internet Group have asked the Office of Fair Trading to enforce clear labelling:

The MPs' report made several recommendations and called on the Office of Fair Trading hasten the introduction of labelling regulations that would let people know what they can do with music and movies they buy online or offline.

This would ensure that it was "crystal clear" to consumers what freedom they have to use the content they are purchasing and what would happen if they do something outlawed by the protection system.

The same labelling systems would also spell out what happened in the event of a maker of DRM technology going bust, if a protection system became obsolete or if gadgets to play the content are replaced.

As one Slashdotter pointed out, the record and movie industries are hardly likely to welcome this plan, as a recent Economist interview made clear:

This challenge is daunting because DRM technologies should not only be compatible today, but for all eternity. Otherwise, consumers will be afraid to pay for content, and will stick with CDs and DVDs, which seem painless and safe by comparison. “If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed,” says Peter Lee, an executive at Disney.

Why, if they had to replace those 'plays for sure' labels with 'won't play on your machine' it might actually make the record labels think it'd make more sense to allow people to do as they choose with music they pay for.

There's a thought.

music drm downloads