by Zack Whittaker
June 18th, 2008 @ 4:09 pm

This seems to fit quite nicely with my “illegal music sharing/copying” post a couple of days ago. Back on the 22nd April 2008, Microsoft gave all those who downloaded music through MSN Music the two fingers, when it announced:

As of August 31st, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers.

MSN Music died a cruel, miserable death in 2006, but those who downloaded music through the service were still allowed to move the files to a new computer, and download a new licence to allow it to play - but timebombing the music until the MSN Music site finally gets cremated… probably 2010-2011, so you’ve got a good while yet. However, Microsoft have double backed on their previous announcement, and announced they’ll continue, past the original 31st August 2008 deadline. From an anonymous source, the email reads:

On April 22, Microsoft notified you that as of August 31st, 2008, we would be changing the level of support for music purchased from MSN Music, and while your existing purchased music would continue to play, you would no longer be able to authorize new PCs and devices to play that music.