| In
an e-mail sent to its customers of MSN Music, the company says that as of 31 August
2008, support will stop for the retrieval of license keys for the songs they purchased
on MSN Music or the authorisation of additional computers. It further states that
if customers attempted to transfer songs to additional computers, those songs
will not successfully play. The music will however continue to play on computers
that have been authorised by that date or even to play them on the same PC if
they change operating systems, including upgrading from Windows XP to Windows
Vista. Up
till now, Plays For Sure DRM technology has allowed ex-MSN Music subscribers to
switch authorisation to new machines and operating systems, so long as they keep
abiding by a previously imposed limit of five computers but this news has upset
a number of Microsoft customers ranging from anti-DRM music bloggers to Linux
fans who are having a ball of a time by lambasting Plays for Sure and other DRM
technology. According
to some bloggers who predicted this, DRM entered the picture and a whole new Pandora's
Box was opened up becuase when copyrights expire the music becomes free for all
but with DRM attached to the music, it makes it unavailable for anyone and future
generations to enjoy this feature which in turn kills the music tracks, says a
report on www.betanews.com. MSN
Music was shut down and replaced by Zune Markeplace in 2006 and people who bought
music before the record industry began to see the light are still stuck with their
DRMed music. | 
