Pat Farrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> Do you think that WMA will be unsupported at some time? > > Sure, when Microsoft collapses like Digital and Compaq did. > Or when the sun goes supernova.
While it's not likely to happen in the near future, it's entirely
possible that WMA could become unsupported while Microsoft is still
going strong. Just because they're still selling software doesn't
mean they still support every file format ever created by their older
software.
More likely however is that WMA will just get replaced with newer
versions of WMA, and as long as you use each intermediate media player
release, any necessary upgrading will happen for you. Which leads to...
> Much more likely is that M$ will build in a DRM into WMA.
DRM is already available for WMA. The problem is when they decide
that media player will refuse to encode anything above a certain
quality level without adding DRM. This is something they've talked
about doing before, and seems to be a juggling act between getting
users to accept the format and getting the music industry to accept
the format for downloads.
Of course this is all speculation, and there will always be a way to
get your music back out from drm'd files if you're willing to put
enough time and effort into it. (it's just nice to not have to.)
-michael
--
"Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery
of truth is useful... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than
denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays
the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race."
- Charles Bradlaugh
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