Blackmoor Vituperative

Last week Warner got very displeased with an online store which tried to sell Warner albums without DRM. The site offers albums in MP3 format at a discount compared to a physical CD. Customers get MP3 files plus a CD could be shipped later as an option.

According to Reuters “Warner Music Group on Thursday demanded that online retailer AnywhereCD remove its digital albums from the site, saying the start-up had violated their agreement by selling Warner’s music without copy protection software.”

It’s OK by Warner if the store helps customers to rip the CDs into MP3s but it’s not OK if those MP3s are without DRM. This way of selling music “flagrantly violates” the agreement between the label and the store.

Earlier this year Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman had expressed his views on DRM. “There is no reason to conclude that music is the one content category that should not or cannot be protected, simply because there is an unprotected legacy product available in the physical world,” he said.

The service founder on the contrary claims that his store helps to boost the falling album sales as consumers have been lately choosing only individual songs for downloads form the stores like iTunes not the whole albums.

“My thinking was we should give consumers a reason to buy an album,” he said. “If you buy the album then I’ll give MP3 tracks pretty much what you get with CDs anyway.”

Later that week AnywhereCD has taken the matter to court. According to Hypebot “AnywhereCD has filed a court complaint Friday against Warner Music seeking a declaratory judgment that AnywhereCD had not as WMG alleged breached its agreement with and has the rights to sell MP3 albums of Warner Music artists. The company is also seeks damages for business defamation, trade libel and breach of contract.”

The point of the story is not the store breaking contract obligations but Warner Music hoping that it can still prevent the industry change and make users buy DRM-ed albums online at a price equal to or higher than that of a physical CD.

(from allofmp3.blogs, Warner calls sale of music downloads without DRM a ‘flagrant violation’)