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I have tried to be a pragmatist when it comes to Digitally Restricted Media"... I mean Digital Rights Management. My first real encounter with DRM was the iTunes Music Store.

I've never had any problems with my iTunes purchases. I've moved media between 5 computers, and been able to do the de-authorize/authorize tango with iTunes in order to get everything to play properly. The only time I've actually been inconvenienced by the iTunes DRM is when I was at work and co-workers wanted to listen to my shared library. Every so often a co-worker would tell me that they were asked for a password to listen to one of my songs (read: iTunes wanted to authorize their computer to play my DRM'd files). I suspect sharing music to co-workers via iTunes somehow violates the terms of licensing anyway. So, while I was inconvenienced, I grudgingly accepted this minor limitation. It didn't impede my ability to listen to my own music, so no big deal.

A few weeks back, my cell phone started to act up. A component, probably the microphone, must have become loose because a great deal of static white noise was being generated during all of my calls. It got to the point where I could not have a phone conversation. It was obvious I needed a new cell phone (sorry Apple, I can't wait for the iPhone).

So I picked up a Nokia 5300 yesterday. I'm surprised at just how good it is for my basic needs. It's a "music" phone, but I frankly don't care that it plays music. It doesn't hold a candle to my iPod for that. But the user interface is pretty decent, especially compared to the Sony Ericsson and Motorola UIs I have used in the past. It works with my Mac (after installing a third-party iSync plug-in), and I can use Address Book to send SMS messages via the phone. I was very happy with the phone.

That is, until I decided I wanted to change my ring tone. I did not want to have a pop song as my ring tone. I did not want music at all. I just wanted to have (what some people would consider) an annoying sound clip of several Formula One cars screeching past an observer on a straightaway. I'm a big F1 fan. And I figure that ring tone will cut through any sort of background noise I'll encounter. So I uploaded the .mp3 file to my phone via Bluetooth, and tried to set it as a ring tone. But my phone wouldn't let me. I started to try to diagnose the problem. Does it expect a CBR .mp3 file instead of a VBR one? No. Maybe it expects a file with a lower sample rate? No. Oh I know what it is, the file is in stereo. It probably expects a mono-encoded file. Hmm, not even that helps. The phone lets me see file details for all the ring tones. One of the metadata attributes is "Copyright". All the ring tones had a value of "Protected" for this attribute. My ring tone said "None". No way, I thought; don't tell me they aren't letting me use non-DRM .mp3 files for ring tones.

But sure enough, after some Internet research, I found that this was precisely the case. In mid-August, Rogers mandated that all their cell phones prevent users from utilizing non-DRM .mp3 files as ring tones. It was supposedly at the request of the music industry. But I'm sure the fact that Rogers charges $2.99 for a DRM ring tone had something to do with it.

So like any enterprising geek, I figured, let me DRM my own file then! I went to Nokia's Developer Forum, downloaded the SDK for my phone, and a content toolkit, and tried to DRM my own file. But for the life of me, I just can't get it to work. The developer software says everything has been DRM'd, but the phone keeps telling me that it is a non-DRM file.

So, temporarily defeated, I have to acknowledge this as the first instance of DRM pissing me off enough to actually retaliate against the company that is behind it. Unfortunately, I need the cell phone, and I don't want to pay penalties by canceling my contract. But I'm going to be looking into Bell for DSL, and canceling my Rogers cable TV/PVR combination. So if a Rogers employee from the Internet or Cable divisions is reading this, you just lost my business because of your Wireless division's decisions. Go pressure them to change.