Hmmm… this person may be onto something here.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people that pay for digital content are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Copy Rights, that among these are the right to play licensed content on any device, to backup said content as the licensee sees fit, and the pursuit of digital happiness. That to secure these rights, social contracts are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of those that pay. That whenever any Form of content protection becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new protections, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Digital Freedom and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Fair Use, long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Digital Rights Management, a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Digital Restrictions, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
After reading up on the subject a bit, I can see why a lot of people are steamed up about this. I’ve bought a total of 3 songs on iTunes since signing up for it several months ago, so I haven’t really thought about it – but it’s true; if you buy music that has DRM in it, you’re stuck with that provider/device/software/etc. FOREVER. Or, at least until someone comes up with a free, open-source converter of some sort. (Although such a converter would violate the DMCA, I believe.)
