Idolator

Microsoft is pulling support for MSN Music's digital-rights management come August 30, which means that any songs purchased through the now-defunct music store—which went dark in November 2006, just as the parent company was going Zune-crazy—will be locked into the computers and operating systems that they're working on at that time, with no further authorizations possible. Microsoft is recommending that affected users burn their unshareable tracks to CD and then re-rip them to whatever new computers they'd like to hear them on, but given that the recommended process results in the fidelity being even worse, what's more likely to happen is that people will be driven to LimeWire, BitTorrent, and leak blogs in search of replenishing their collection. Ah, digital-rights management—it really is good at making unintended consequences turn into reality, isn't it? [Listening Post]