As XM satellite radio is eager to stop its customers from recording (and possibly
pirating) its service, they have decided to quietly discontinue its XM PCR. This hardware is a dedicated XM
satellite receiver for PCs, but through the use of the third party software
TimeTrax, one could easily build up a vast library of music by leaving their PC
unattended recording the XM broadcasts.
While XM have not publicly announced its discontinuation of the PCR, the
message leaked out as a result of PCR orders being declined and the users being
told that their product has been discontinued when they enquired about their
order. As a result, many existing
PCR users are now selling their PCR's on eBay, advertising them as rare or
discontinued in an aim to fetch high bids.
While XM declined to give any explanation about the PCR discontinuation,
a number of factors had likely lead to it.
First PCR's only made up a small fraction of their overall sales since XM car stereos was
their hottest seller, next they were trying their best to block
or shutdown TimeTrax and finally the RIAA likely had an influence since XM
did not want their service to have an influence on piracy.
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Before being quietly discontinued this month, the XM PCR was one of several hardware devices sold by XM Satellite Radio to give its more than 2 million subscribers satellite radio reception. In conjunction with a third-party software title called TimeTrax, however, the PCR let listeners download songs to their personal computers. Since XM discontinued the PCR, units have fetched steep premiums on eBay. The device, which retailed for about $ 50, is getting bids of more than $ 350 in recent auctions, with sellers advertising the unit as "discontinued" and "rare." XM declined to confirm the discontinuation of the PCR. "We don't comment on when products are being discontinued or not," company spokesman Chance Patterson said. "It's just a matter of policy." But a source close to the company confirmed the discontinuation, as did a distributor of XM hardware. "We put in an order on August 18th, and they never filled the order," said Ryan Morris, owner and site administrator of St. Louis-based XMFan.com. "Then they contacted us and said they'd discontinued the XM PCR." The demise of the PCR comes as the recording industry battles music copyright threats on multiple fronts. Record companies, which have repeatedly filed lawsuits against people who use file-sharing programs such as eDonkey, Grokster, Kazaa and LimeWire, recently lost a crucial battle, when a federal appeals court ruled that file-swapping software programs were legal. After years of battling file-sharing networks and individual file swappers, the recording industry found a new nemesis in TimeTrax. Sold by Scott MacLean, an independent programmer in Read the full article |
It is a
pity that XM are getting so worried about the few customers recording their
service. As TimeTrax is only
shareware and requires registration, it is likely that only the 500 users that
have purchased it are doing any serious recording at all. XM has a total of 2 million users, so I
cannot see why they are so worried about around 0.025% of its customers
interested in recording their service!
If FM radio broadcasters where to think the
same way as XM, radio-cassette recorders would have long been extinct not to
mention PCI and USB PC radio tuners and MP3 players with FM recording
capability. Yet, I have not heard
of one radio station (at least here) complain about its listeners
recording their service.
Source: CNET News - Entertainment
