p2pnet - rss feed: Microsoft ‘civil rights coup’
p2pnet.net News:- You are a wallet with legs waiting to be raped, believes The Inquirer’s Charlie Demerjian.
He’s talking about revelations that turn up in Microsoft’s voluminous Release Notes for Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP, full of if’s, but’s and maybe’s, and packed with tricky qualifications.
From the look of it, Bill and the Boyz have staged a “civil rights coup,” and, “most people are dumb enough to let it happen,” Demerjian declares, talking about the fact Windows Media Player 11 will no longer allow you to back up your licenses, which are now tied to a single device.
If you lose it, “you are really SOL,” he observes, suggesting you read the links, and saying the entire page is, “scary as hell”.
But, he states, the licensing part takes the cake.
Under Backing up and restoring licenses, “Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses),” say the release notes.
However, depending upon where your protected files came from, you might be able to restore your rights over the Internet,” says Microsoft helpfully.
If you encounter an error message that indicates you are missing play, burn, or sync rights for a file and you had these rights previously, you might be able to resolve the problem by restoring your media usage rights. You have several options to do so:
*If you obtained the file from an online store, contact the store to find out if it offers media usage rights (license) restoration (some stores refer to this procedure as computer activation, computer authorization, or license synchronization).
The procedure for restoring your rights varies from store to store. For example, you might be able to right-click the file in your library or click an Error button or an Information button next to the file, and then click a command. Or you might be required to delete the file from your computer and then download the file again.
The store might limit the number of times that you can restore your rights or limit the number of computers on which can use the songs or videos that you obtain from them. Some stores do not permit you to restore media usage rights at all.
For details, see the store’s customer support or Help links.
*If the file is a song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.
Translation? - says The Inquirer. “Not our problem, and get bent, we got your cash.”
But it gets worse, as the story points out, referring to this, from the MS site:
If the file is a song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.
And there’s more:
Recorded TV shows that are protected with media usage rights, such as some TV content recorded on premium channels, will not play back after 3 days when Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP is installed on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. No known workaround to resolve this issue exists at this time.
And ….
Content that is protected with media usage rights cannot be played in Windows Media Player 10 if a computer already has the Windows Media Format 11 Runtime installed (which is installed with Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP). In some situations, Windows Media Player 10 may quit unexpectedly when trying to play protected content and licenses for protected content might be lost.
And …
You might not be able to play music from your Library if you are using a digital media receiver with Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP. This issue might occur if music files in your Library are not stored in a monitored folder when you upgrade from Windows Media Player 10 to Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
And …
Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP might not be able to find a digital media receiver on your home network and therefore, won’t be able to share digital media content with the device if Windows Live OneCare is installed on your computer.
It’s a bit like the old, black joke, ‘Apart from that, Mrs Kennedy, did you enjoy the ride?’
Bill and the Boyz arrogantly suggest various ‘work-arounds’ without the hint of an apology for the trouble they’re causing.
For technically non-savvy people, it’ll all be highly daunting. And why should they have to bother in the first place? This is, after all, no more than technology invented specifically to pour even more gold into Billionaire Bill’s coffers.
Also See:
The Inquirer - Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights , September 21, 2006
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September 21st, 2006 at 9:39 pm
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of saying this.
As long as there are analog outs on sound cards, and a line-in/microphone in, people can just take a 6in mini stereo cable, plug them together and record the soundrecorder (start/run/ sndrec32 enter) and burn/save/backup the end file however they choose.
Granted, as long as there are much better options like the FairUse4WM program to simplify the process, why bother with the analog loop lol.
*The above is just my opinion. I’m not directing you to attempt anything and in fact I’m only mentioning common knowledge information while poking a laughing finger at the changing world of DRM. If ya do something ‘bad’ with my comments, it’s you who’s liable, not I*
Just my 10 cents,
_-Jile-_
September 22nd, 2006 at 3:45 am
If you don’t like it, don’t use it.
I don’t even have version 10, and the only bits of 9 that are on my pc are because loser game devs think they need the codecs to display their crappy movies the one time i’m prepared to allow movies to get between me and gameplay.
I’m just hopeful that once this kind of crap starts to interfere in joe average pc user’s everyday use of his pc, that he’ll get pissed off about it and start demanding that it stop.
September 22nd, 2006 at 7:48 am
Yet again. Just Say No To DRM.
Now am I being paranoid in thinking that there’s a small step here to an end goal. Which is that WMP 12 (or whatever) will stop you playing non-DRM files? Or will wrap your non-DRM files in internal DRM?
For evidence I’ll give you the Zune. Non-DRM files copied between Zunes via WiFi have DRM added to them. Even if they are public domain to start with.
I’d suggest just boycotting WMP but some of us have Plays4Sure personal players that depend on WMP to copy tracks on and off the machines. But then we hear that PFS is dead and Zune doesn’t support it.[1]
You gotta love hardware that is made obsolescent by a software upgrade elsewhere in the ecosystem.
[1]Creative Zen Xtra hacked with an 80Gb 2.5″ disk.
September 24th, 2006 at 5:34 am
Good God, what a mess! I can’t imagine how crappy the user experience of using “protected” (read: DRM-infested) files is with these sorts of landmines waiting in the wings. What next, DVDs which render themselves unplayable after a short time? (Oh wait, someone already tried that!)