Today the Evening Standard gave away a CD that contained some standard audio tracks together with some extra tracks which were controlled by a Digital Rights Management tool called “4Play” (because you can play the tracls four times before you need to buy them).
Obviously, I assumed that this was never going to work on Linux, but I thought I’d take a look at their support page just in case. As usual in this cases, it was obvious that this was a Windows-only solution. There was a page that told Mac users they were out of luck but no mention of Linux.
I sent an email to the support address asking them whether their software worked on Linux (knowing full well what they’d say) and pointing out that it would be nice if they at least acknowledged the existance of Linux users.
And I was amazed to find it seems that my email went to someone who has some sort of clue. He said that they’d add a note about Linux this afternoon. He also said that they were working with Microsoft to get the DRM working on both Mac and Linux (which sounds like they just might be talking to the wrong people!)
But anyway, they are planning to admit that Linux exists. Which is good.
Tho’ it’s a slightly weird world when getting a company to admit that their software doesn’t work on Linux can be seen as a (minor) victory.