Yeah, it’s been slow in the world of DRM hating. So slow you could almost wish of the days of…. what the?

Tip o’ the hat to Maura at Idolator for unsurfacing this little nugget (with assists to Listening Post and good ol’ Ars Technica).

Tracks purchased from MSN Music back in the DRM Daze will no longer be supported by Microsoft. If only they were retro cool like Mac2s or cassette Walkmen. Instead the tracks will die the next time users change their operating systems. The recommended path is to burn and re-rip (likely in the MP3 format that should have been offered in the first place, right?) at a substantial quality loss, and I’m guessing these weren’t quite 256K VBRs to begin with.

All of this presumes there is an audience of MSN Music track buyers to be offended for, of course. Nothing like getting all in a tizzy for a theoretical victim. But at this point we can say DRM has officially had an open kimono moment. Remember how they said how DRM was better for you? It isn’t.

You’d think they’d learn (and I’m not sure who “they” are here as Microsoft and the Zune Marketplace users are equally at risk of ass biting here, not to mention other well-known, yet-to-be-100%-DRM-free online music stores of note) that this strategy has failed. The Zune Marketplace boasts more than three million tracks, and more than one million DRM-free MP3 tracks available. So by my math, that’s roughly two million ways to hose yourself. If only they would link this story to the front page as a caveat emptor.

Rob Bennet of MSN delivered the bad news with a velvet touch:

“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.”

Not quoted are the tears he likely shed for the fate stricken customers. The poor customers he worked so hard to serve.

Hollow place a buying, indeed.

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