Some Zune tracks are crippled with no-sharing flags - guess which

By at 9:00 pm Friday, Jan 19

Some labels have told Microsoft that it's not allowed to enable "squirting" for their tracks when sold through the Zune store. Squirting is Zune's much-touted ability to send your friends DRM-crippled tracks that can be played three times (or saved for three days) before they're erased. Microsoft won't tell you whether or not a track you're about to buy is extra-crippled -- nice deal.
Curious about this, I conducted a test of my own. I pulled down the top 50 songs downloaded from Zune Marketplace, using my Zune Pass subscription. I then created a playlist of those 50 songs, and attempted to wirelessly send the whole playlist to my wife's Zune.

When the transfer completed, a message appeared on my player: "Can't send some songs because of rights restrictions. 29 of 50 songs sent to Carrie's Zune".

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Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom		Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)

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