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May 29, 2007

itunes_store

Audiobooks purchased from the iTunes Store recently won’t play on iPods

Posted May. 29, ’07, 2:55 PM PT by Pat Nakajima
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

In what may be the first instance of DRM infringing upon a actual users’ abilities to reasonably do what they want with their media, a number of recently released audiobooks on the iTunes Store are not iPod compatible. Affected titles include such popular reads listens as Tim Ferriss’ “The Four-Hour Work Week” as well as Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason.”

Apple is instructing would-be mobile audiobook listeners to hold off on making any audiobook purchases from the iTunes store while its engineers work on a fix. For those whom had already taken the plunge and purchased the only somewhat playable audiobooks before the announcement from Apple, a refund has been made available.

The comments on this story found on other sites declare this trouble to be just another instance of DRM restricting the uses of legally acquired media. The trouble with this argument of course, is the fact that Apple is readily refunding these purchases, making the problem not a symptom of DRM-armageddon, but instead a mere technological glitch, an anomaly awaiting remedy.

So to those of you who might be inclined to start up the anti-DRM picketing campaigns, I beseech you: take a deep breath, and don’t buy any audiobook from the iTunes Store for a bit. It’ll all be better soon.

[via Gizmodo]


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