Yahoo! Music Store Support Dead by Sept. 30

by Chloe Albanesius

Has Yahoo learned nothing from Microsoft?

Several months after the Microsoft MSN Music Store snafu, Yahoo announced Wednesday night that support for the Yahoo! Music Store will shut down as of Sept. 30, 2008.

"After the Store closes, Yahoo will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for music purchased from Yahoo Music Unlimited, and Yahoo will no longer be able to authorize song playback on additional computers," the company said in a Thursday e-mail to customers.

Yahoo announced in February that its Music Unlimited customers would be migrated to Rhapsody via a "simple click-through process that will automatically recreate the user's library within a new Rhapsody account."

According to Wednesday's e-mail, however, after Sept. 30, "you will not be able to transfer songs to unauthorized computers or re-license these songs after changing operating systems."

What does this mean for your music?

Songs purchased through Yahoo Music will "generally" continue to play on existing authorized computers, but if you get a new computer or update your operating system? Goodbye music. The only other option is to burn the music to a CD and re-upload the songs to your new computer to play on Rhapsody.

Microsoft pulled a similar move in April when it announced that it would delete its MSN Music license servers on Aug. 31, so music purchased from the now-defunct Music Store would be accessible only via the five computers you authorized to play the tunes.

The news prompted user backlash and a call from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to issue refunds for the lost music. As a result, Microsoft backtracked and decided to allow access until the end of 2011.

EFF was similarly outraged by Yahoo's move.

"Here we go again," staff attorney Corynne McSherry wrote in a Thursday blog post.

Sherry demanded that Yahoo take several steps: issue a full apology to Yahoo! Music customers; offer a refund for purchased music; ensure that all Yahoo! Music buyers have receipts; and/or cover their legal costs if they are hit with copyright infringement claims; and widely publicize the above measures so Yahoo! Music users know their options.

"At the very least, this announcement is further evidence (if such evidence were needed) that DRM is just bad business," McSherry wrote.

This post originally appeared on AppScout. (from www.pcmag.com)