Audible.com SUCKS - Why Audible.com 'free' is NOT FREE (WARNING RANT)
Yes, I'm pissed at Audible.com - Audible.com deceptively claims to offers "FREE" downloads of all sorts of political materials. The only problem is they lock it down in their proprietary closed non-free audio format so you can't do whatever you like with it such as listening to them on your mp3 player. Assholes. Yes. I said assholes. I haven't used it before on that blog, but this is just the sort of time when it should be used.
To put it in other words audible takes FREE, public domain, content and makes it deceptively NOT FREE by locking it into a
DRM (digital rights managed) format using it as leverage to get you to sign up for an audible.com account and marketing to you. You will NOT be able to put this proprietary format on your mp3 player, you will not be able to sample it and you will not be able to share it with your friends. You will not be able to convert it into an open format without some pain-in-the-ass and potentially illegal circumvention of their proprietary format. To clarify it would be potentially illegal under the DMCA (
Digital Millennium Copyright Act), though it would likely NOT stand up in a court of law as it's clearly unconstitutional. In fact DRM should be called DCCR as it is a technique for "digitally circumvention of constitutional rights".
Back on point: You will also not be able to play this content without maintaining an audible.com account or share this content with others. If you ever expire your audible.com account you will lose access to this content though you may have the file in your possession. Each time you play this content on a new computer or box it must be played on a player that supports audible.com's proprietary format and you must have online access so you can type in your username and password so you can ask the assholes audible.com if you can play your public domain "free" content.
This content is all public domain, but as of yet I have not found another source for all this content. They make me want to take all this content rip it into open MP3 formats and start an alternate parody website at audiblesucks.net or freeaudiblesucks.net that mocks their stupidity and liberates this content back into the public domain while giving them a black eye.
Free my ass. Audible, you lie and YOU SUCK. Stop shitting on potential customers and the public domain. What is most perplexing and most pisses me off is this DRM'd format is COMPLETELY unnecessary in this scenario. I would have been happy to sign up for an audible.com account to get this content in an open mp3 format. They'd probably garnish a lot more exposure, downloads, signups and a lot more positive feedback and press if they weren't such assholes about introducing unnecessary technological problems such as DRM to choke the value of the material.
LINKS:
Audible.com SUCKS because they LOCK DOWN all this content which should be public domain.
Final thoughts, This is a primary example of why I hate DRM (
digital rights management) and why the DMCA (
digital millennium copyright act) is such bad law. The two work together to allow corporations such as Audible to bastardize the public domain and threaten those such as me, who would seek to circumvent the roadblocks to free speech. The
Induce Act would then go one step further to make even my words here as illegal as they strongly suggest that people should go about circumventing Audible.com's DRM format.
In closing I repeat: Audible.com STOP SUCKING and change the format of all your audio files you claim are "FREE" into the mp3 format which is actually free and open so your potential customers can sing your praises instead of expressing outrage and crying foul over your deception.
Chicago, IL
