MSN Music Store Licences Revoked

Licences revoked

In the meantime, some early adopters are suffering the consequences of DRM's failure. Last month, former customers of Microsoft's defunct MSN Music store in the US received an unwelcome email. "As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of licence keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," it said.

So what does that mean? Protected music files are encrypted and locked with a key. To play the file, the media player must acquire a digital licence that is specific to the PC or portable device on which it is played. The licence may permit music to be copied to other computers or devices, but each device must be individually authorised by an online licence server. Without such a server, former customers of MSN Music will not be able to play their DRM-protected music on any new PCs or portable players that they buy.

The problem is worse than it first appears, since a "new" device may actually be your existing PC. Some users habitually reinstall Windows to keep it running sweetly, but doing so removes its authorisation; even adding or changing a hardware component can also break the DRM, as Microsoft notes matter-of-factly in a support article. Worse still, the DRM component in Windows can get corrupted for no apparent reason.

This is a common problem for users installing the BBC's iPlayer software, for example, which also uses Microsoft DRM. The fix, described in detail on the iPlayer support pages, involves deleting all the files in the hidden DRM folder within Windows. A side effect is that existing licences are destroyed - so existing DRM-protected files could well no longer play. In other words, there are multiple scenarios in which customers who have bought music, supposedly for a lifetime, may need to re-authorise their purchases. If the licence server has been turned off, the music will never, ever play again. What if you back up your licences? This used to be possible through Windows Media Player. But Microsoft removed the option from version 11, introduced for Windows Vista. Microsoft's Adam Anderson told us that licence backup did not work properly anyway.