If you create enough of a stink about it, you’ll force a company to attempt to fix a mistake.

[Quote:]

On Thursday, MLB.com vice president of corporate communications Matthew Gould expressed regret for the snafu, saying the site’s transition from its former DRM system “was somewhat inelegant.” He said the deactivation of old downloads “was something that we just didn’t anticipate.”

Gould said people who had downloaded regular-season games from 2006 and earlier would be offered a new, free download at the same quality as before, while buyers of postseason games would get a higher-resolution replacement. (In a follow-up e-mail, Gould explained that downloads for 2004 came in a 320×240 resolution, with those for the next two years at 400×300–both considerably duller than the 640×480 resolution of MLB.com’s current downloads.)

MLB’s DRM system still has issues of its own, though. It requires Windows Media Player 10, limiting buyers to computers running recent versions of Windows. It also does not permit you to transfer your playback license to more than three computers, ever. Once you sell or dispose of those three computers, you can’t watch those downloads anymore.

Gould said he was aware of that last problem, but did not say that MLB.com would commit to fixing it.

So, in other words, quit whining and go watch your baseball. While we let you.

Bears repeating: