Three little letters, about a year ago, had a death-grip on the music industry: DRM. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? DRM limits the unauthorized copying and sharing of music. We can see that argument. It also limits what music can be played on certain devices. Should you get a new computer or device and need to transfer your licenses, all we can say is -- good luck with that. We speak from experience.

Recently record labels and at least a few online music sellers have moved away from offering DRM-laden music. And today, Napster announced it was making the move to DRM-free downloads. (The company's subscription service still includes DRM) Napster, the service that once offered DRM-free songs (illegally), and then legally sold DRM'd songs, has been reborn into the service it should have been all along -- legal music, DRM-free.

Moving to the MP3 format opens up Napster to a wider array of devices, including the ubiquitous iPod. We're not financial gurus, but we sense this can only mean good things for Napster, and for the music industry as a whole. Music that we can play on any device we might have, on any computer we might have? We might break our music boycott. We might even have the heart to upgrade the circa 2004 Zen Touch to something new. You know, now that we can actually own our music, and not just rent it for the life of the device.

[via Reuters]

Microsoft might be in the center of many critics' sights for any number of reasons right now, but few serious, well-written detractors have made the leap to calling the company 'dead.' Sure, John C. Dvorak will say anything for a pageview, but Paul Graham, a partner in startup VC Y Combinator, just penned an intriguing essay titled Microsoft is Dead. Instead of trying to make some bizarre case that OpenOffice could destroy Microsoft Office (a - if not the - primary bread-winner for the company) in any near or realistic future, Paul more or less argues that the intimidating shadow Microsoft cast over the software world (carrying on IBM's torch) for the past 20 years is gone; that no one who matters or cares about the computing and web industries is afraid of Redmond anymore, nor are they interested in what the company is doing (case in point).

Paul lists four specific reasons and companies which brought us to this new era where Microsoft likely matters not, and instead of ruining a great, concise essay by summarizing them, you should probably check them out for your self.

[via Daring Fireball]