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Upgrading systems means losing purchased music

Customers will be left holding onto inaccessible music once Microsoft turns off the licensing servers for songs purchased through MSN Music, a situation the Electronic Frontier Foundation finds untenable.

MSN Music customers are an OS upgrade or PC replacement away from losing access to their songs. Though it may not affect a lot of people, as MSN Music turned out the lights in 2006, anyone impacted by the decision to no longer support the licensing loses here.

The EFF wants Microsoft to reconsider the decision. "If Bennett is truly concerned with 'what’s best for people,' he can start with ensuring that his customers can enjoy their legally purchased digital content on whatever machines they choose to use, on whatever OS or devices they have in the future," they said of Rob Bennett, head of MSN Entertainment and Video Services.

Microsoft wants to nudge consumers over to its Zune media player and its associated marketplace. Though Bennett suggested the decision to discontinue DRM support on new or updated machines couldn't be foreseen, EFF pointed out how Cory Doctorow spoke at Microsoft in 2004 about this kind of situation being possible.

EFF also dropped a letter in the mail to CEO Steve Ballmer, asking Microsoft to take steps to mitigate what will happen when the DRM servers shut down on August 31st this summer. They would like Microsoft to provide people with a way to get their currently-owned music in a DRM-free version, or receive a refund for the purchases.

DRM came into being at the insistence of music labels who feared the piracy of their songs from services like MSN Music. Now, both Amazon.com and Apple's iTunes offer songs without DRM. Giving MSN Music customers an option to have their songs in a DRM-free format seems like a fair request in light of the labels' change of opinion about DRM.