How not to treat your paying fans
Allan Wood (baseball historian, author, and fan) purchased over $280 worth of digital downloads of baseball games from Major League Baseball. Despite wording in the product’s FAQ that promised the service would be available “forever”, last year MLB switched off the functionality of that DRM server, leaving him (and everyone else who spent $3.99 a download) with no way to watch his purchased product.
It’s been over six months since his first complaint to MLB, but Wood’s efforts to get the service working or be issued a refund have been stonewalled. Now the service is back, but with a different DRM system and different games. Buyer beware. They stuck it to Allan Wood and they’ll stick it to you.
For anyone else developing systems that require DRM to view, make sure any new products you install are backwards compatible with any product you’ve sold. Or better yet, do away with DRM and stop trying to monetize digital properties.
Don’t treat your fans like wallets with legs and they’ll continue to support you for years to come. Treat someone like the MLB did Wood and all the other baseball fans and it will get picked up by hundreds of websites, news sites, and blogs (including the most read blog of all BoingBoing.net).
(found on BoingBoing)