A question about DRM

[Carol Haynes]

HOWEVER D2D has since updated the page to include information about the included DRM. when I purchased the files, this part of their site and business was still "under development". I am usually VERY careful about these things.

-PaladinMJ (July 06, 2007, 03:21 AM)

Sounds like you have a good case for a full refund if the terms and conditions were not available when you made the purchase. In that case they can't even claim that you agreed to any changes in terms either.

They can't argue that they can't give a refund because the whole point of DRM is that they can revoke your license and make the download file useless.

They can't have it both ways.

If I were you I would contact your credit card company too as they are also party to the purchase and should enforce consumer rights.

[steeladept]

So PaladinMJ, I'd urge you to call up Direct2Drive, complain vehemently that their copy protection is abridging your fair use rights, cancel your subscription (if any) and demand a refund. They'll probably come back with some blather about a license agreement or terms of service you agreed to when signing up for the site. Don't back down. You can tell them that these "clickwrap" agreements have never been held up in court (they haven't) and that recent federal court rulings have shown that one-sided, take-it-or-leave-it terms of service agreements are "contracts of adhesion" and are therefore legally unenforceable (which is also true). If you don't get satisfaction, call your credit card company and see if it's not too late to reverse the charges.

-Jimdoria (July 05, 2007, 03:04 PM)

I don't know about around the world or even here in the U.S., but it sounds to my untrained ear like a valid case for a class action suit against DRM.  If only I knew how to make a strong case for it, it would definitely be worth talking to a class action lawyer about.

[felix56]

There is a very simple way of making DRM audio files able to be put on CD's. It's also completely legal, although i guess it depends what country you are in.
Heres how its done using WMP 11. Simply make a playlist & save it using the DRM protected tracks. Once you have ;
done that, go to burn & drag & drop your playlist into the column on the far right of WMP. Burn baby burn!!! :Thumbsup:

[Carol Haynes]

Felix56 - congrats on your first post ...

There are three things to consider when burning CDs from DRMed files:

1) It may or may not be possible depending on the license issued (sometimes burning the track is excluded)
2) If you can burn there is usually a limit to the number of times you can burn it
3) If you burn to CD and then rip it back in MP3 format technically your are breaking the license in most cases, but also the process of encoding to CD and then recoding to rip it back reduces the quality of the audio file.

One fourth thing is that the post that started this thread was about a video file and most DRMed video cannot be burnt to a playable disc format.

[PaladinMJ]

Felix56 - congrats on your first post ...

There are three things to consider when burning CDs from DRMed files:

1) It may or may not be possible depending on the license issued (sometimes burning the track is excluded)
2) If you can burn there is usually a limit to the number of times you can burn it
3) If you burn to CD and then rip it back in MP3 format technically your are breaking the license in most cases, but also the process of encoding to CD and then recoding to rip it back reduces the quality of the audio file.

One fourth thing is that the post that started this thread was about a video file and most DRMed video cannot be burnt to a playable disc format.

-Carol Haynes (July 11, 2007, 03:24 AM)

Carol is correct. DRM'ed audio files can be locked down very hard if the producers so decide. As of so far they seem to be a bit more leiient with audio then video.
Video is always locked down harder that audio, they barely allow you to watch it.

as for the comment about the class action suit i am looking into just such a course of action. i will let ya'll know how that turns out. Iam a californian by the way, so we know where this is trying to fly.

[steeladept]

Good luck.  Let us know if there is anything you need to support your efforts.