Yahoo has decided to brick countless customers' music collections when it switches off its DRM server at the end of next month.

Yahoo told its Music Store customers yesterday that DRM license key servers would go offline on September 30, 2008. When the store goes down, tracks cannot be authorized to play on new computers and Yahoo is recommending that punters spend the next month burning the files to CD. Otherwise, all that music you paid for will not run and need to be bought again.

Microsoft had a similar problem when it tried to shut down its DRM-infested music store. In the end, it had to keep the DRM servers running until 2010. What is perhaps most annoying is that many of its customers were digital music pioneers who bought legal MP3s when everyone else was pirating. It is being seized on as yet another reason why DRM is as useful as a chocolate teapot.

More here.