This is positive news when viewed from a certain perspective: MLB rips off fans who bought DRM videos. So Major League Baseball (a big deal in American sports) had a media download service that was protected by iron-fisted digital rights management. It was the type of DRM that called home for authorization to check if you still had permission to view the downloaded content. And the mothership had decided to go with a different DRM system or provider.

I wonder if this is high profile enough to set a serious example for the implications of consumer media DRM? I know it’s a wake-up call for me to remember to crack all of Apple iTunes Music Store purchases while the keys are still somewhere on my computer.

According to the discussion linked above, MLB may have relented somewhat and offered existing consumers a means of re-downloading their purchased content under the new system. So maybe this episode won’t provide much of an object lesson after all.