Illegal Downloads

Once again, the constant rivalry between Microsoft and Apple has one again increased with the establishment of British music retail giant HMV . HMV Digital was created in partnership with Microsoft. According to Steve Knott the Managing Director for the United Kingdom, HMV will enter the world of digital media and will predominantly compete with Apple's iTunes's, by allowing users to pay for each song they download or through a subscription service which allows unlimited downloads over a certain period of time. The establishment of HMV in digital music was presumably done to help combat the illegal trading of music of programmes such as, Kazaa, Imesh and Morpheus, which all offer free music downloads. Here however is where the problem lies, HMV like Apple's iTunes and Napster offers a subscription price of 14.99 pounds per month for unlimited downloads, but if your subscription is not renewed after that month all songs are wiped and you are left with nothing. Therefore this is pretty much a catch 22 situation, you can either download the music you want at price whether it be per song which would allow you to keep that song or per a monthly subscription which if not renewed will as mentioned before will be wiped from your computer. This then sort of acts as a simple registration would allowing those who do download through reputable programmes to listen to their music with a clean conscience or on the other hand promote more illegal downloading on other file sharing programmes such as Kazaa?

URL: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=AP&Date=20050901&ID=5080133