Apple licencing Fairplay for charity?

Hi All

I just received a promotional email for the Warchild charity, offering downloads of tracks from the Warchild album (£3.50 for the entire album or 99p for individual tracks - http://www.warchildmusic.com/home.asp).

I'm not a big fan of most of the music on the album, but as it was only £3.50 and it's for charity and all I decided to go check it out... Much to my surprise, the downloads are available in both wma and aac format - both are drm'd. Warchild's download shop appears to be run by http://www.7digital.com/, although the tunes are 'activated' by the iTMS. Anyone know what's going on? I notice that 7digitals other downloads appear to be iPod/Mac compatible...

jx

MisterMe said:

At £1.50 per track, it seems in bit on the expensive side to me. Look, just because someone claims to be a charity doesn't make them a good cause. In the USA, there are or have been major rip-offs in the name of reputable organizations. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the Fraternal Order of Police have been associated with fraudulent charities. Now, just imagine what is done in the name of charities without familiar names. War Child Music has the markings of a rip-off.

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Well, I can assure you that Warchild is a reputable charity in the UK, and I also think it's a very good cause, originally set up to aid children affected by the war in the Balkans, but since expanding its reach to other conflicts around the globe. And it's only £0.99 per song (or only £3.50 for all 20).

I didn't, however, post in an attempt to drum up support for them, I was just interested in the format they were using, as the songs are DRM'd aac files which are compatible with iTunes and the iPod which, although not purchased through the iTMS, are still 'activated' by it. I was wondering if 7digital were using Fairplay or whether they were using some other compatible DRM method.

jx