They Screw You With DRM Dept:
To quote Leo Goetz in the "Lethal Weapon" movies, they screw you with DRM.
Latest installment, Audible.com. Now don't get me wrong. On the whole, I'm a pretty happy Audible customer. I've found it very easy to purchase and download content from them, and their frequent listener program is a great deal. But they use the same owner restrictive DRM as Reader, where you have to "activate" your device to actually access your content.
So here's my problem. I tried to install an update to Audible Manager 3.0. Something went wrong, and now Audible Manager crashes every time I start it. I can't even get the main window to show up. Every time I try to reinstall Audible Manager, it tries to run Audible Manager as part of the install, which of course then crashes. So I figured I'd just uninstall it and reinstall it. I went to Control Panel and ran Add/Remove Programs, and tried to uninstall Audible Manager. Then it warns me that if I remove Audible Manager without first deactivating my PC, I won't be able to add a new activation when I reinstall, because I'll be out of activations. It suggested I run Audible Manager and deactivate it, but if I could run Audible Manager, I wouldn't be trying to remove it in the first place.
I decided to call Audible and discuss this with them. As I write this, it's Sunday night. I've heard that the online chat on Audible.com is the best way to get in touch with support staff, so I started with that. A javascript window popped up, and sat there blank before displaying an SQL timeout error. I knew email would take forever to get a response, so I called the 888 number listed on the website. An automated voice answered and told me my call might be recorded for quality assurance, then I sat there and listened to silence for a few minutes before realizing that either the system had "lost" my call or that no one was going to pick up the phone.
So I'm screwed. There's content I've paid good money to have access to, but I'm completely unable to access it.
I've said before that all this DRM really does is screw the customer. They probably have it right there in the business plan: "Step 5: Screw the customer." Probably makes the investors go wild. Here I've been a good Audible customer, talked them up at every opportunity, and now I can't run Audible Manager, can't access content I've rightfully purchased, can't get in touch with customer support and I've been left high and dry. Let me say it again: because of technical problems with their customer-hostile DRM, I can't access content I've already paid for.
Unfortunately, Audible is the only legal source for contemporary digital audio books. If you want to play within the rules, you have to put up with this crap. But, I have noticed a lot of audiobooks in MP3 format showing up on Napster and Usenet. Unfortunately, the seventeen year old yahoos ripping it tend to sample it at 192 kbps, resulting in file sizes way too big for mobile devices. (Why do people rip MP3s at 192 anyway, even for music? The CD itself only stores data 128 kbps, so anything above that is just recording empty bits...)
Once people figure out that spoken work audio still sounds okay at 8-16 kbps and start ripping at that rate, MP3 and WMA audiobooks should be acceptable for mobile listening. Maybe after Audible no longer has a monopoly on mobile digital audio, they'll quit screwing their loyal customers.
To quote Leo Goetz in the "Lethal Weapon" movies, they screw you with DRM.
Latest installment, Audible.com. Now don't get me wrong. On the whole, I'm a pretty happy Audible customer. I've found it very easy to purchase and download content from them, and their frequent listener program is a great deal. But they use the same owner restrictive DRM as Reader, where you have to "activate" your device to actually access your content.
So here's my problem. I tried to install an update to Audible Manager 3.0. Something went wrong, and now Audible Manager crashes every time I start it. I can't even get the main window to show up. Every time I try to reinstall Audible Manager, it tries to run Audible Manager as part of the install, which of course then crashes. So I figured I'd just uninstall it and reinstall it. I went to Control Panel and ran Add/Remove Programs, and tried to uninstall Audible Manager. Then it warns me that if I remove Audible Manager without first deactivating my PC, I won't be able to add a new activation when I reinstall, because I'll be out of activations. It suggested I run Audible Manager and deactivate it, but if I could run Audible Manager, I wouldn't be trying to remove it in the first place.
I decided to call Audible and discuss this with them. As I write this, it's Sunday night. I've heard that the online chat on Audible.com is the best way to get in touch with support staff, so I started with that. A javascript window popped up, and sat there blank before displaying an SQL timeout error. I knew email would take forever to get a response, so I called the 888 number listed on the website. An automated voice answered and told me my call might be recorded for quality assurance, then I sat there and listened to silence for a few minutes before realizing that either the system had "lost" my call or that no one was going to pick up the phone.
So I'm screwed. There's content I've paid good money to have access to, but I'm completely unable to access it.
I've said before that all this DRM really does is screw the customer. They probably have it right there in the business plan: "Step 5: Screw the customer." Probably makes the investors go wild. Here I've been a good Audible customer, talked them up at every opportunity, and now I can't run Audible Manager, can't access content I've rightfully purchased, can't get in touch with customer support and I've been left high and dry. Let me say it again: because of technical problems with their customer-hostile DRM, I can't access content I've already paid for.
Unfortunately, Audible is the only legal source for contemporary digital audio books. If you want to play within the rules, you have to put up with this crap. But, I have noticed a lot of audiobooks in MP3 format showing up on Napster and Usenet. Unfortunately, the seventeen year old yahoos ripping it tend to sample it at 192 kbps, resulting in file sizes way too big for mobile devices. (Why do people rip MP3s at 192 anyway, even for music? The CD itself only stores data 128 kbps, so anything above that is just recording empty bits...)
Once people figure out that spoken work audio still sounds okay at 8-16 kbps and start ripping at that rate, MP3 and WMA audiobooks should be acceptable for mobile listening. Maybe after Audible no longer has a monopoly on mobile digital audio, they'll quit screwing their loyal customers.
