[Wylug-discuss] Which? magazine

[John]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 08:50:09AM +0000, Nigel Metheringham wrote:
> 
> On 22 Feb 2012, at 21:45, Roger Greenwood wrote:
> > I have been aware of this problem for a long time, and have avoided anything Apple and DRM for that reason. The same problem exists of course for ebook formats.
> 
> Actually, as far as music/audio files are concerned, Apple/iTunes 
> has been DRM free for several years.  Not sure about video, and
> Apps are definitely assigned against iTunes accounts.
> 
> The audio files are, however, in a different format (AAC or Apple
> lossless) to the de-facto standards.  They also include the ID of
> the purchaser in their metadata (in much the same way as some PDF
> ebooks I have include my name in the footer of each page).

Maybe "avoided anything Apple or DRM" would cover it.

The overall point appears to be that the rights can't be assigned or
inherited, whereas with a book/CD/etc they can.

Books/etc tend to cost more than the digital stuff but get passed to
others (via charity shop in many cases), which over time may make them
better or worse value.  As the digital stuff is fairly cheap does it
really matter if it's not allowed to be passed on?

I'd certainly like the legal right to convert formats, and there's some
chance that will be enacted regardless of the rights holders' wishes.

(I do agree Which? aren't good at mentioning free stuff. I had a go at
them some years ago about anti-virus etc and they've improved somewhat.)

John