Throttling....Hardware?

I think this is just plain idiotic on their part. I will never buy a piece of metal that would tell me what I can and can't have.

What i think?

Western Digital is now banned from my purchase list (from whereever i am responsible for buying hardware) forever and if i had bought this piece of hardware yet i would call my lawyer.

wow, just what we needed, more "protection" hardware.

Idiots are going creazy with DRM! really bad thing.

guess they forgot to include MKV files. sounds like another best seller!!

good luck WD, i'll avoid your drives from here on out.

Its the greatest invention of all times...this guys are visionaries... NOT ! , what a stupid idea !!!

The real idiots are the ones buying it. Hey, maybe it's an early April fool joke.

They shoot their own foot!!!.

I wonder if they are going to to this with their internal hard drives. That would be a complete disaster. I'm planning on getting a WD internal hard drive for my new hackintosh but if I even get one sense that they are doing this with internal drives, no more WD for me.

PS Awesome News numberzz

DRM is a bad idea and inconvenient for consumers, but there are always ways around it.

When I purchase songs from iTunes, I immediately convert them to MP3 format so I don't have to worry about DRM. I use HandBrake to copy certain scenes or movies I have bought onto my Hard Drive.

Lastly, I may buy Western Digital Hard Drives, but I'll put them in my own case that doesn't have DRM.

DRM is bad, but supporting artists is good.

--danyel

I never buy External HD's like this. I always assemble my own.

Still a very bad move from WD.

Buff, sorry WD, but you´re banned , i ´ll never buy WD again.

Wasn't this on Digg like two weeks ago?

No, it wasn't

This is ridiculous. When will they stop with this DRM nonsense? Whenever I read about DRM copy-protection, it seems there is always a workaround. Same story here, even WD has posted instructions on how to use SAMBA instead of their own dreadful Anywhere Access crapware.

Good read, but numberz, your news posts are getting sloppy! (no offense)

To pay money for this piece of {censored} you must be out of your mind.

Looks like everything's just getting crappier and crappier. Then the company tells you to switch to something better or earlier. First Windows, now WD, who next? I'm hoping not Apple. This isn't cool, I was looking towards getting a WD external. Actually, I should get an external soon before they all have this {censored}.

I never buy External HD's like this. I always assemble my own.

 

 

Still a very bad move from WD.

yes, i agree.. if you have one of these style external hd ,you can't even open it up without busting it..... there is no screws ! so even after you pay them the money, they still want to be in the loop by (trying) to force you to send it to them to get inside of it.....as if they still own the G.D. thing!!!!

Could the drive be reformatted thus deleting the DRM issue or is it based on hardware?

Good read, but numberz, your news posts are getting sloppy! (no offense)

Sorry, it was like 6 in the morning when I started writing this.

^^

There's a 6 AM?

Could the drive be reformatted thus deleting the DRM issue or is it based on hardware?

It's software based. Apparently if you don't download their drivers, DRM won't be in effect.

Why not just boycott WD?

DRM is bad, but this is not only DRM. It doesn't even let you share your own videos that you "ripped" from your video camera. That's a big wow for me.

I have a WD drive that came from 2006 and does not have those "features". Yay for me... and all the other ppl who do

I think most people who use a home network, share media with it... WD is stupid to think not.

There's good business strategy and then there's BAD business strategy. You can guess which strategy Western Digital is using here. Honestly, I've been a huge WD advocate due to their excellent customer service and support. However, something like this will not go unnoticed by WD supporters. Time to turn to someone who isn't POLICING what I do.

Apple is riddled with DRM, but do you own a mac or an ipod or iphone?

WD makes quality hard disks. Just don't buy this one.

Western Digital may not be the best drive company out there but this news story is BS

See: http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/article...0.01.10.15.html

"The problem the person had wasn't with the drive, it was with the personal private network software from MioNET and even then it is only limited to internet file sharing. [5] The hard drives, which are designed homes or small businesses with several computers, will let any machine on a local network read music and video files"

The drive works great as a NAS, but it includes a feature that allows you to easliy share files and folders over the internet. If western digital made it easy to set up a 1tb file server on the internet with no content protection the riaa and mpaa would have a field day...