Anyone know what's happening with Weedshare?

At the moment I can't access www.weedshare.com -- it's asking me for a username and password. As far as I can tell the MySpace page and Yahoo group have gone pretty quiet recently too.

If DRM-free music takes off, then it's hard to see how the Weed model could keep going. But does anyone know if they have formally shut up shop?

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Started Jun 5 2007 by:

David Jennings: View Discussions »; Send a Message; Add as friend

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Permalink Reply by Jason Herskowitz Jun 5 2007
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I haven't heard anything, but it's a good question. I'll look around too.

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Permalink Reply by David Jennings Jun 5 2007
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Ah -- the site is now accessible and confirms what I suspected:

Weedshare has suspended operations Unfortunately, due to compatibility problems with recently released media players, the Weedshare service is no longer available.

You can still play Weed files you have bought, but it is not possible to preview or buy new Weed files. We recommend that you save Weed files you’ve purchased to CD so you will have permanent copies.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Herskowitz Jun 5 2007
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Just found this...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/05/media_player_weedshare/

However, Microsoft's security improvements in Microsoft to WMP 11 read files as having been illegally tampered with and refuses to play them.

John Beezer, Shared Media president, told The Register his company called time on WMP after spending six weeks trying to fix the problem. Shared Media rectified a similar issue in Windows Vista using a documented Active X fix.

"We are moving away from Microsoft because of the cost and frustration," Beezer said.

Shared Media will resurrect its service during the next six months with an offering less reliant on Microsoft. A service is planned for MP3, Flash, Open Mobile Alliance DRM version 2.0 and Microsoft's newly announced PlayReady format. "We are repurposing the system," Beezer said.

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Permalink Reply by David Jennings Jun 5 2007
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Great -- thanks a million for that, Jason.

I have a couple of paragraphs on Weedshare in my book. The final final version went to the publishers on 2 April, and then this happens on 5 April... Well I can live with one thing like that -- it's bound to happen -- I just hope last.fm, pandora, myspace, mystrands, ilike and MOG don't all go into extended hibernation by September ;-)

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