Cianer.com

I recently bought some of the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company's dramatisations of H.P. Lovecraft's books from Audible.co.uk only to discover that they contained DRM so I couldn't listen to them on my Roku Soundbridge in the sitting room.  Needless to say this really hacked me off.

A few minutes googling found this petition against Audible.com's DRM.  Seems Amazon promised to remove the DRM when they bought Audible but are now pretending its nothing to do with them.  Below is a copy-and-paste of the email I sent to Amazon, Audible.co.uk and Audible.com.  Hopefully its one voice in a scream rather than a whisper.

I foolishly purchased some ARTC dramas from your Audible.co.uk site the other day.  Why foolishly?  Well, because I assumed that the DRM war was over and that audible.com would be issuing DRM-free downloads as their parent company Amazon.com does.  Imagine my surprise when I bought content only to discover that I couldn't listen to it in my sitting room on my Roku Soundbridge music player.  To say I was frustrated and annoyed is to put it mildly.

It strikes me that the kind of person who downloads audiobooks is hardly your stereotypical bittorrent abuser.  The latter are more interested in Lady GaGa's latest single than a dramatisation of H.P. Lovecraft's 80-year-old novels, and since you seem happy to sell "Pokerface" DRM-free I am astounded that you choose to protect your Audible.com offerings.

I have not yet downloaded the content I purchased, which means I can accept the refund offered by your (admittedly sympathetic) customer support personnel and spend that refund on CDs purchased directly from the publisher.  If I hear back from you within the next few days giving me an indication that you intend to scrap the DRM from my content I will gladly download it and continue to spend the money with Audible.co.uk.  If not then you will get no money from me until you alter this ludicrous policy.

DRM costs you money to produce and maintain and causes me headaches and prevents me from listening to my content where I want.  The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company WILL get my money for their content, whether Amazon/Audible also profit from this is up to you.

Slan,
Cian