Microsoft Preps 'Janus' Music Copy-Prevention Scheme

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft is expected to unveil copy-protection software this summer that will for the first time give portable digital music players access to rented tunes from all-you-can-eat subscription services -- a development that some industry executives believe will shake up the online music business." Janus is the Roman god of doorways, gates, passages, preventing people from copying music, etc.

Comments

Serious question

[Anonymous Coward]

Has Apple iTunes been hacked yet? As in giving people un-encrypted, un-watermarked AAC files?

Re:Serious question

[mdarksbane]

This isn't really a crack, as you have to have the legal rights to those files to be able to crack them in the first place.

A useful crack would be to strip the DRM off of someone else's files that you had downloaded. This only allows you to go through a lot of effort in order to distribute the files you obtained legally in the first place. It's not really useful enough to say that iTune's DRM has been "cracked."

I've got an easier crack; burn the tracks to cd and play those in another computer. Or if you want to get fancy, capture the stream from CoreAudio with something like Audio Hijack. These only lose you quality if you feel like reencoding them in something else lossy.

Reminds me of something else...

[airrage]

I recently tried out the Wal-Mart 99c per song download and found it pretty cool, DRM and all. I was able to download to my work computer and then copy to my home computer (with the license). So both are viable in both locations.

The only downer is the fact that if you lose the licenses you're screwed.

Also worked on my MP3-player so I can take the song running.

The interesting note is I charged the song. So it ended up being 99c. This was the only charge for the month on my credit card. However, my balance for the month was zero! Wal-Mart had given me a 'Small Balance Credit' which I assume is that it's probably less of a loss (99c) then some transaction fee (several dollors) from the credit card company.

So I guess you get twelve free songs a year if you handle this correctly!

I don't want to rent...I want to OWN.

Yep, I dub the effort MSMusIVX!!

[SuperKendall]

It should be really interesting to see how quickly this gets adopted. Like you say the model is really similar to DIVX and people in general just do not like rentals.

TV subscriptions are one thing because most shows are transient, and you can record forever the ones you like. But a music subscription offers no similar benefits, only an ongoing cost and limitations on use (can you burn real CD's with a subscription service?)

I've already hacked it.

[baudilus]

Step 1) Rent song.
Step 2) Put rented song on mp3 player.
Step 3) Go to Radio $hack, buy an adapter cable to connected mp3 output back into PC.
Step 4) Record song from Sound Card's 'Line In' using a high-quality program like Goldwave.
Step 5) Enjoy all the choonz you want for $10 / month.

Digital Music Library

[TwinkieStix]

So, is there any reason that this can't lead to "digital music libraries" where the songs are "checked out". This could make legal downloads nearly costless (like checking a book out from the public library). The only hurdle is to keep people from checking out copies for super-extended periods of time such that nobody else can check that copy out.

Stop the bashing; this is a great idea!

[fname]

I'm reading the responses here, and I'm a bit apalled (sp?) at the number of people complaining that this won't work/is evil/ shouldn't be used.

Are you kidding me? You're going to give me anytime, anywhere access to over 400,000 songs for $10/month, and you complain? Man, I wish Apple would do this, because I would certainly pay for the service to use with my iPod. These subscriptions are marginally useful to a small group of people in their current form (work on CPU only). Give me a $10 subscription that I can use on my iPod, and I'll sign up tomorrow.

Who cares if it's DRM. It's a great value, and the type of service we've all been anticipating for many years. I hope Apple beats 'em to the punch!

Re:Are they kidding?

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

J-ANUS

This is the name of a Roman god - with Indo/Aryan origins. Interestingly, Janus was - literally - "two-faced".

TWO-FACED: Dictionary Entry and Meaning
Pronunciation: 'too`feyst

WordNet Dictionary
Definition: [adj] having two faces--one looking to the future and one to the past; "Janus the two-faced god"
[adj] marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another;
"she was a deceitful scheming little thing"- Israel Zangwill;
"a double-dealing double agent";
"a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer"- W.M.Thackeray

Synonyms: ambidextrous, deceitful, dishonest, dishonorable, double-dealing, double-faced, double-tongued, duplicitous, faced, Janus-faced