I will not even waste my time linking to countless examples old DRM screwing consumers in countless ways - they are out there, this is the latest example. DRM does nothing for consumers and fans of music.

Copying the following from Listening Post because they have lots of good points I will highlight:

Microsoft Passes Buck to MSN Music Buyers on DRM Snafu
If you bought tunes from MSN Music, it may soon suck to be you.

Microsoft’s DRM-laden tracks allowed limited portability, but owners who upgraded their computers or operating systems still needed to reauthorize their already purchased music with MSN’s DRM servers in order to transfer it to approved devices. Now, because the Redmond brainiacs can’t (or won’t) manage that mess, those servers are going dark. And guess who’s going to pay for the portability?

That’s right, you. Last week, Microsoft announced it was deactivating its validation servers because the whole process was just too complex, which is somewhat humorous coming from a company with a mission statement claiming it wants to help businesses and people realize their full potential. Evidently, that lofty goal does not include following through with technological solutions Microsoft creates.

“Microsoft is asking its customers to spend more time, labor, and money to make degraded copies of music that was purchased in good faith,” Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director Shari Steele complained in an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outlining ways the company could right its wrong. (Yeah, right.) “This outcome was easily foreseeable from the moment Microsoft chose to wrap MSN Music files in DRM. Microsoft customers should not have to pay for Microsoft’s bad business decisions.”

Too bad they will. If MSN Music fans want to transfer music they paid for to another computer or different device, they’re going to have to buy it all over again — or download it. And labels wonder why the wired world turns to P2P. It’s enough to make a music fan go crazy, like Steve Ballmer does in the video above. Crazy is as crazy does.

Pretty unanimous support, all against Microsoft, on this one across the board:
EFF Scolds Microsoft for Leaving MSN Music Fans Out in the Cold - Compiler

The Electronic Frontier Foundation thinks Microsoft ought to do more for the MSN Music customers who were recently, and rather abruptly, cast out the door. Although the EFF stops short of threatening legal action, in an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer the EFF says that Microsoft needs to issue a public apology, provide refunds or replacement music files and launch a “substantial” publicity campaign to make sure its customers know their options.

The controversy stems from Microsoft’s recent decision to shut down the authorization servers that work with the DRM music files purchased through MSN Music. By doing so, all the music that customer’s legally purchased through the MSN Music store will be trapped on a single computer.

Microsoft’s Final ‘Up Yours’ To Those Who Bought Into Its DRM Story - TechDirt

And from Hypebot:
I’ll let the evil corporate giant do the talking:

“As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.”

In simple terms, if you get a new computer next year; all the tunes you bought from MSN Music won’t play in it. “We will no longer be able to support…” sounds like “screw the consumer” to me.

There’s more out there but you get the point……

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