Monday, January 22, 2007

Rob Glaser calls for end to DRM

I learn from Derek Slater that RealNetworks' Rob Glaser has called for an end to DRM encumbered music downloads.

"Glaser reportedly stated that he is "seeing some signs the industry is open to ... giving consumers a way to purchase music with the flexibility that you can only get if you take the DRM off.... For purchases, move away from DRM" (emphasis added). What common sense - when you buy music, you own it and should be able to make personal use of it however you want."

Btw, my own drm mini saga is still partly ongoing. The replacement DVD player got delivered and seems to work ok - it reads and plays my DVDs, or at least the three I've so far tried on it. But when City-Link delivered the new machine the van driver refused to collect the faulty one. It wasn't his job apparently. Coming up to 5pm on Friday I was getting kinda anxious that there were no further City-Link vans on the horizon - my refund on the faulty machine does not come through until Hughes-Direct get it back.

So I phoned City-Link. They had no notification of a collection from my address.

So I phoned Hughes-Direct. They assured me they had arranged for the collection and gave me a collection tracking number.

So I phoned City-Link with the number and was informed that Hughes-Direct had asked for the faulty machine to be picked up next Friday, 26th January between 10am and 5pm.

So I phoned Hughes-Direct and pointed out what I assumed to be the error. They told me they would arrange for the machine to be picked up today between 10am and 5pm Well so far no sign of the City-Link van and since my refund is dependent on the efficient expedition of the logistics between them I'm hoping I'm not going to be playing phone tag between the two firms again this evening.

Update: Well City-Link collected the faulty machine about 3.30pm and now I have to trust/make sure that the appropriate refund will be expeditiously forthcoming in the next few days.

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