p2pnet - rss feed: Microsoft vs FairUse4WM
p2pnet.net News:- Bill and the Boyz have dismissed FairUse4WM, which allows people to handily defeat their Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology. However, that Microsoft chose to pay any attention at all means the application is considerably more than merely a minor irritation.
FairUse4WM is a GUI version of drmdbg that supports individualization version .3930 and some WM11 versions, says viodentia on Doom9’s Forum, going on:
Basic requirements
1. Only works on individualized DRM file
2. Requires WM10 or WM11. Won’t work on WM9.
The program’s functioning can be verified with “Demo” DRM files from ezdrm.com, as well as those from other Microsoft Solution partners.
This program is ONLY designed and intended to enable fair-use rights to PURCHASED media.
- While I haven’t been able to support license expiration/rental detection, please don’t use this to abuse rental license
- This code does NOT allow import of KID/SID pairs to preclude its use for piracy
Note that some WM installations will have multiple ECC key-pairs, so you will likely have to “Extract Keys” using multiple licensed files. If you find a file that doesn’t convert, try extracting keys wth it. Once your whole set of keys is extracted, you will no longer need to run WM per file.
Finally, I’d like to thank the people who helped me test this program. Thanks for the suggestions, and yes, even the problems. With your help, I hope I am able to release a stable tool for Wm conversion.
Agence France-Presse has Jupiter Research’s Mark Mulligan saying, “in practice it doesn’t actually mean that much.”
Consumers who wanted to use “legitimate sites” probably wouldn’t use FairUse4WM, but, “hackers and those interested in illegal copies may already have the means to accomplish this”.
“This is big news in the weird and wonderful world of hackers and developers, but not really that big a deal for the digital music world,” says Mulligan, according to AFP.
Of course, music lovers and others who use the p2p networks and indie web pages outweigh those who use what Mulligan calls the “legitimate sites” by an order of magnitude.
Meanwhile, “We have an update to address the circumvention and are working with our partners to deploy this solution,” InformationWeek quotes Marcus Matthias, senior product manager for the Windows Client Division, as saying.
The partners include, “providers of music and video that depend on Microsoft’s digital rights management technology to prevent illegal copying of their content,” says the story, going on:
“FairUse4WM is unique because it could be used to free tunes downloaded on PCs through Windows Media-supported subscription services, such as those offered by Yahoo and Napster. Once the DRM is removed, the files, for example, could be played on Apple Computer’s Macs or iPod portable media players.
“Subscription services store music on a PC, so it can be moved to a portable device. The DRM application prevents the music from being copied to a CD, and contains a 30-day timer that resets every time the subscription is renewed. No renewal and the files deactivate.”
On Lifehacker, Adam Pash names FairUse4WM Download of the Day for August 28, saying:
“Specifically, FairUse4WM works only on Windows Media DRM 10 and DRM 11 (aka, PlaysForSure). While ‘this program is ONLY designed and intended to enable fair-use rights to PURCHASED media,’ as it stands, the program will strip the DRM from any PlaysForSure file, whether you’ve purchased or just rented the song. So it’s really up to you to ensure the fair use of this program and your music.
“As someone who’s not too keen on the current state of DRM, I can say that FairUse4WM is definitely a tool I’d recommend using under the right circumstances.”
Download it here. Just in case, we also have a copy here, and definitely stay tuned.
Also See:
dismissed fairUse4WM - Make Fair Play play fair, August 29, 2006
Agence France-Presse - Microsoft admits music hack, August 31, 2006
InformationWeek - Microsoft Readies Fix For DRM Hack, August 30, 2006
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