Warning this may be a rant

A lot of software developers have to think in some way about anti-piracy measures. Now, I pay for all my software - I would think it hypocritical for me to do anything otherwise. However I’m on a bit of a tight budget so this usually means I look at freeware solutions if possible, and for entertainment and games I’ll buy only if there is a free trial and it’s reasonably priced.

But there is a fine line between protecting your software (online validation is fine in my book) and totally inconveniencing your customers. Which brings me to the headline of this post. If you want to inconvenience your users just copy the music industry.

Over the last couple of years the RIAA has been trying to shut down various guitar-tab sites saying that they are infringing on artists copyright.

Now, ignore the issue of whether you believe this to be true or not - especially as many people use these sites for *gasp* educating themselves. We wouldn’t want people acquiring and learning new skills in their free time now would we?

Anyway, the RIAA have managed to shut down a large number of guitar-tab sites.

Because I play guitar, this kinda sucked. But then I thought, ‘ya know, it would actually be nice to get official/accurate tabs, with a share of the money going to the musicians. So I had a look around at some of the sites that offer official tabs (I’m not going to grace any of them with a link) because I was bored one weekend and wanted to learn some Doors songs.

First of all the tabs were a bit expensive, it was like $3US per track - I think there are some cheaper sites, but anyway, what really fustrated me was what happened after I decided to buy, it went something like this.

• Add songs to cart.
• Sign up with an account.
• Get out credit card and pay.
• Apparently I need to install some software to view the tabs because it has this niffy auto-play feature.
• Receive the tab.

But the installed software is really a mega-crippling DRM in disguise.

These were the terms of me using my tab which I paid for!

None of this was explained to me in any way during the buying process.

• First off I was only allowed to look at the first page! WTF!
• Secondly I was not allowed to save the tab to a file.
• I had to print the tab out.
• I was allowed to print out one copy only!
• I could not print to file or print to pdf.

I DONT OWN A FUCKING PRINTER YOU BASTARDS!

I couldn’t believe that I had purchased a digital product for more than it would cost to buy the actual song off iTunes and I had to print it out myself!

After finding this out I requested a refund, and I was sent another email allowing me to re-attempt to print my tab. WTF? Customer service please! Did you read my email? I DONT OWN A FUCKING PRINTER YOU BASTARDS!

I then proceeded to get spammed about once a day from them asking me to buy more stuff.

The funny thing is they could have made a decent customer out of me, if only they delivered good service on fair terms. But the music industry still hasn’t got a clue!