Windows Media Player Sends Cookies for Audio CDs?

CleverNickName asks: "I have adsubtract installed, on my Windows 2000 system, and filter out all cookies and advertisements, except for sites like Slashdot. When my Windows Media Player starts up a CD, it tries to set a cookie, and I hear adsubtract 'gulp' it. So why does WMP need to set a cookie about my CDs? Does it send this information to the Borg? I've read the included documentation, and searched on Microsoft's website, without finding an acceptable answer. Maybe a fellow reader can help unravel the mystery?" I could not get my Windows 98 box to reproduce this behavior. I didn't see anything in the C:\Windows\Cookies that would indicate that WMP was sending anything, nor did I see the machine emitting any unusual network traffic. If anyone else has noticed this behavior, please let us know.

Comments

The Cookie Contents

[sharkey]

Back to the rock pile...
Here is the contents of the cookie it set on my PC (Win2000 SP1, Media Player 7.00.00.1954:

LocaleInfo %7C%7C%7C%7Cen%2Dus windowsmedia.com/ 0 3172904448 29774887 2413349536 29407559 * MC1 V=2&GUID=2AE3D4AE6AAC47569458766F42438213 windowsmedia.com/ 0 3049388032 29592233 2413649536 29407559 *

This is all on one line. The following is the cookie broken out into its separate fields.

LocaleInfo
%7C%7C%7C%7Cen%2Dus
windowsmedia.com/
0
3172904448
29774887
2413349536
29407559
*
MC1
V=2&GUID=2AE3D4AE6AAC47569458766F42438213
windowsmedia.com/
0
3049388032
29592233
2413649536
29407559
*

The first half seems to deal with location. Could it be my location? Might it be part of a region check for DVD?

The rest is pretty Greek to me. Maybe someone with experience reading MS cookies might have an idea. It doesn't appear to refer to CDDB at all, to my untrained eye.

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