I have recently bought legal downloads for the very first time. I was/am an online buyer of DVDs and CDs but had never taken the plunge into downloaded material because, well, what do you get for your money?
What you get is a lot of aggravation due to the restrictions of DRM and the fear the industry has in providing us, the consumer, with our purchased goods.
Years ago I would have bought an LP and a blank tape and the music industry was fine with this. I had the LP for home listening and could create a tape for my car. Indeed I believe there was money going from the sale of blank tapes to the music industry. Of course "home taping is killing the music industry" was part of a campaign to stop you taping from friends or of the radio, but I don't think anyone was being prosecuted for making mix-tapes or personal use recordings.
Now I have an Audio-book that is delivered as an "aac" file which can only be played on certain devices or must be "written" onto 6 CDs before I am able to rip it into a mp3 file that will work on all of my mp3 devices. This ripping of CDs is of course considered "illegal" by the music industry. So I, as a fee paying customer, am being pushed down an illegal path to have full use of that which I have legally purchased.
I may have saved about €3 in downloading rather than buying a CD but have much more aggravation. The music industry has saved on production, printing, packaging, delivery and storage costs and then makes the whole process so restrictive that an illegal download, that is already in an all encompassing mp3 format, looks the better option. The music CD I bought was only easier to use because I could quickly burn it onto one CD and rip it to hear it on all my devices.
The Audio-book has still not been completely heard because although I have a smart-phone that plays mp3s, an mp4 player, a no-name mp3 player and a "Creative Zen-Stone" mp3 player, it only works on one of them ("Creative Zen-Stone") and that is my daughters. She is always using it herself and it is PINK! I think I'd risk being done for illegal ripping of CDs before I sit on the bus or am seen in public with a PINK mp3 player!
But then again, really, who cares?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
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