James Delahunty
6 Apr 2007 16:14
A music sharing site that is home to 10,000 musicians and 100,000 tracks is set to go offline next week due to incompatibilities with the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Weedshare, which has been in operation for four years now, is popular with small and independent artists. The problems with Windows Media Player 11 are due to Digital Rights Management (DRM) on certain files.
Weedshare made updates to its files to allow operators to charge consumers. Shared Media Licensing, which owns Weedshare, adds its own data to the music's tracking data, so that downloaded tracks can be played three times before charging. Unfortunately, security enhancements in WMP 11 means that the files incorrectly get identified as having been "illegally tampered with" and won't play.
"We are moving away from Microsoft because of the cost and frustration," John Beezer, Shared Media president told The Register. The company will resurrect the site sometime during the next six months with offerings that are less reliant on Microsoft software.
Source:
The Register