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Microsoft DRM To Get Even Tighter
Toreo asesino writes, "Microsoft is tightening the screws on their up & coming DRM platform. First, Windows Media Player 11 removes the right to move music from one machine to another. According to their website, WMP11 'does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses).' Worse, if you rip your own CDs and the 'Copy protect music' option is turned on, WMP11 will require you to 'connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.'" The Inquirer has an even more jaundiced take on Microsoft's turn of the thumbscrew.
You don't have to use WMP to rip CDs you know?
This is really a moot issue. I mean I hate Microsoft and all that they are, but seriously, just don't use WMP.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Even tighter DRM? Wow... tell me again why I should install Vista?
Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
This is beautiful. Microsoft goes even further in restricting your rights for material you already own (god knows what purchases will be like). Meanwhile, Apple has been going in the other direction, finally adding a "transfer purchases from iPod" menu option in iTunes 7.
This guy's the limit!
how they still manage to speak of "your rights" when there are virtually none left to speak of...
Also saw "Cannot play back recorded TV that is protected with media usage rights in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 after 3 days". Man this so makes me want to get all tricked out with a Zune and windows break-my-media center, because they all look so nice and they 'just work'. This must be that 'microsoft standard' thingy I keep hearing about all the time. Standard - that's when you get to arbitrarily break things that used to work, right?
See - monopolies really do work better than an open marketplace of ideas.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
Between this and the Zune's 3 days/3 plays model of DRM, it seems like Microsoft are trying their hardest to confuse people as to when they can and cannot play their music. It almost sounds like they want to generate bad public opinion.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
The more you tighten your grip, the more music listeners will slip through your fingers.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
I don't really listen to CD's that often, only owning three or four, and I don't download music (except when I get it for my wife, and then I pay for it). But this kind of asinine, punch consumers in the nuts philosphy almost makes me want to make copies of my few CD's to give to everyone I know. If only I weren't so lazy, and didn't still respect the rights of the artist. Will most consumers do anything about it though? Probably not. They will just bend over and ask for more, as Microsoft takes away any concept they might have of "fair use".
Excellent! I knew we could count on the MegaCorps of the world to demonstrate the drawbacks of DRM more effectively than any consumer rights activist ever could. The more they tighten down the restrictions, the more people will be inconvenienced by DRM, and the more people will care. Perhaps, one day, they will even be enlightened about what proprietary DRM systems do to interoperability and consumer choice.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
To what end? Why did they do this? At the behest of who?
I'd call them turd burglars, but that would imply some competence at burgling turds.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Microsoft is trying to kill DRM.
Summary mispelled privileges and missed the last part of the sentence: "you filthy theiving consumer SCUM!"
"Look's like you're trying to backup a CD - I've just informed he RIAA. Would you like me to call you a lawyer?"
You can just direct the WMP11 play back audio stream into an OGG/MP3 encoder via a loopback on the sound card.
I fooled him, Grandma, I put a license checking chip on his soundcard.
KFG
Man this so makes me want to get all tricked out with a Zune and windows break-my-media center..
Then, I will hug some snakes... yes. I will hug and kiss some poisonous snakes.
Now that's sarcasm!
ah yes, the analog hole.
doing that could be dangerous though. you'd want to make sure the input wasnt being sent to the output, otherwise you'd get an infinite feedback loop. i blew out a guitar amp doing that.
Because it's a Genuine Advantage to do so. HAH!
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
Never underestimate the power of idiots in large numbers.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Without all this DRM everywhere, I don't think we as a society would ever write another line of music. Ever.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Won't these changes actually be illegal in some European countries? Some countries make certain restrictions on copying illegal, or at least that's what I've read in many /. comments. Will Microsoft have to release a different version of the software in Europe?
Developers: We can use your help.
I think I'm just plain done with Windows. I'll either defect to Apple or (more likely) go exclusively to Ubuntu and purchase Cedega to run the games I have.
Of course, I say this recalling that, once upon I time, I removed windows from my computer and installed OS/2. I really liked OS/2 but, unfortunately, IBM apparantly did not.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Workarounds can be found here and here.
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
Isn't that normal? Isn't that what will eventually provide a market correction? Eventually Joe is going to find that 500$ worth of music he has bought over the last two years is locked into a dying PC or a stolen Zune and he has to pay all over again to get his music back. Then his friend Smartli Nuxuser tells him why he would never have that predicament at the watercooler. Happens repeatedly. Gets retold repeatedly. Joe gets mad
When Joe Sixpacks gets mad, he really gets mad. He sues left right and center. Start class action lawsuits. When CA builds million miles of highways and sues the car makers fo CO2 emissions, why cant Joe Sixpack sue MSFT? It can write all the EULA it wants, but when you get millions of Joe Sixpacks mad, all bets are off.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Who the heck keeps the 'Copy protect music' option on anyway?
'connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.'
... wait, can't be. They're talking about restoring it only a limited number of times. Not permanently.
I never thought I'd see MS advertising Linux. Or
What a scam.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yeah because instead of downloading one of the myriad of other Windows software programs that rip CDs to DRMless formats, I'm going to switch operating systems instead. Ripping CDs is not an OS issue. Please don't try to make it one.
This is the typical machiavellian style corporate/political anouncement. They'll tune down a little on the real DRM just before release and then all the dumbass ords will say "No, they changed that. It's not that bad as you say. MS are nice people and they build cool stuff." In the end people will get screwed over .... and they'll probably approve.
Welcome to the world of cyberpunk.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
This comment should in no way be taken as an overall endorsement of an Apple-boner worldview but, let's face it, there is something fundamental about music and people that the Jobsian camp "gets" that the Redmonites don't.
One significant reason why the iPod -- crippled as it is under its own DRM and Applephilic burdens -- was/is such a success is because it makes the experience of selecting and playing back popular music comparatively easy, even for people with shrunken frontal lobes and/or other severe cognitive challenges (retardation, ADHDADDADHD, neoconservatism, etc.). Even my grandma knows how to rip CDs into her library and stick them on her iPod.
The relative transparency of the process means that my grandma doesn't have to call a geek to help her. This means the obstacles between her and what she wants to listen to are minimal. Basically, it's easy. The rights management is sufficiently flexible that she doesn't know or care that it is there.
This Microsoft DRM scheme, in contrast, sounds very visible.
No matter how smoothly or non-smoothly it works, the visibility in and of itself will intimidate/frustrate/frighten much of the herd. Anything that requires an explanation -- even a simple one -- cuts scads off of the numbers of potential customers.
The perception of simplicity sells Apple products, for good or for ill. Until Microsoft understands this, they'll be playing catch up forever.
Marketshare does not equal mindshare. Evidently.
These stories are free but worth money.
I read recently that 7" vinyl record singles are starting to sell again. I guess people like the idea that they can sell, resell, and re-record their music. It may not be a CD one could rip, but at least it can't infect your computer with a rootkit while you weren't looking. People just want to listen to music they like. They'll pay once for the privilige of owning a recording. However, they won't pay attention to any ephemeral bit of legal nonsense which keeps them from using the recording wherever they might like in their personal lives.
This unilateral effort Microsoft is attempting is doomed. Other OS vendors will eat Microsoft's home PC market away when it becomes clear that they can do what Microsoft will not. The work PC market will continue to thrive based upon inertia of the PHB class of managers.
As for RIAA, their online sales will fizzle as they focus on more DRM, while the very musicians they recruit get disgusted and start voting with their feet.
Once Microsoft puts this thing on the market, I look forward to new lawsuits from RIAA against other OS firms, saying in effect that Microsoft does DRM, and you should too. We can look forward to whole new classes of peer to peer music rips. We can expect RIAA's online sales to fizzle. And over the very long haul, I expect the RIAA to shrivel in to an agency for lawyer welfare once their cash cow has left the barn and she discovered that it really isn't too bad outside.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
I used to think this too. I purchased a copy of "Muvaudio" for my PC, for just that purpose. Since it installs a "virtual audio patch cable" device that it routes though, it would seem the whole process stays digital (so no "loss" like you'd get from actually using analog patch cords from an earphone/spkr out to a Mic/Line in).
.WMV files, vs. re-recording the audio, and then used a converter tool to go from the DRM-free .WMV file to 192-bit MP3 in a seperate step. And I'm almost positive I'm getting better quality MP3s now as a result.
I converted a whole slew of music files out of protected WMA format to MP3 192-bit with it, and they sounded good.
*BUT*, I tried playing with one of those programs that simply strips the DRM off of the
It's hard to describe the difference, but I especially notice it at lower listening volumes on my car stereo. The ones made via Muvaudio tend to make the listener want to turn the stereo up louder to hear the track more clearly. And when you do, it sounds good - but your ears get "fatigued" more quickly than normal. There's a little less "warmth" to the overall sound than there should be.
I dunno... the DRM in this version of WMP looks half-baked. I think I'm going to wait for Windows Media Player 12 to come out, which reportedly will include DRM that doesn't let you listen to your music at all. All the major recording labels are on board with this format, so we may finally get a realistic alternative to iTunes without the clumsy Mac-like interface. Plus, it won't cost much more per track than the average iTunes song now. There will also be more visualizations included to help you imagine what the music you're playing actualy sounds like. I know that a lot of Slashdotters bash Microsoft over security, but I'm glad to know MS is taking bold steps to protect my music!
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
And whatever you do, don't cross the streams. That would be bad. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip.
There is a simple method of bypasing this DRM when ripping your music. In WMP go to the Tools menu, select Options. Click on the "Copy Music" tab and ensure that the "Copy protect music" option is not selected.
Man, that was a close one, they almost screwed us this time!
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
So, let me get this straight. I'm an independant artist with a published and distributed CD, on which it's stated: "Please feel free to copy and use this music however you see fit, share it with friends, put it on P2P, make a mix, or include it into other works. Do not include, encode with, or wrap this work in any anti-copying system or use any technological protection measures upon this work. If you value this work, feel free to contribute. Donation details can be found at (website addresses). Enjoy!".
So, by one of my fans simply playing my content with WMP11, their DRM will be imposed on my copyrighted content without my knowledge or consent, my rights as a copyright holder, content creator/artist are trumped/destroyed, as well as my revenue stream from donations from people who've been given copies of my work is effectively terminated?
Makes me want to reach for a rapid-fire assault-lawyer with a huge assault-class clip of C&Ds, injunctions, and claims for real and punitive damages, as well as possibly motions for class-action status, and do a legal drive-by on their butts firing on full-auto!
Cheers!
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
One of the major hassles of downloading music from alternative sources is gettings songs that are badly ripped. Unfortunately, secure ripping, proper encoding (with a decent encoder) and complete tagging takes a fair bit of work, and the average PC user evidentally doesn't want to go through that. So we have a huge bunch of crummy MP3s floating around.
By limiting the ability of a clueless user to rip CDs, the average quality level of pirated MP3s should go up nicely. And that is a good thing for all of us.
And one of them was me. I've been building and admining systems for close to 10 years now, and I didn't even know it was there until a few nights ago. And it is on by default. Granted, I don't use WMP to rip stuff and I was looking for some other option at the time, but I found it on accident. At least half the people that use windows will not know it is there and on either.
I hope everyone here knows you can rip CDs at 8x with winamp for free, and get OGG/FLAC and other plugins to rip them to...
You can never make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious.
I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) for all my audio ripping & burning needs. As far as free players with strong privacy, a small footprint, and really good library / playlist management, I'm still waiting. Meanwhile, I use MMJB (which I bought long, long ago) as my main music player & library manager.
For video conversions, I tend to use Nero tools. Having a Media Center PC with ~ 2TB of RAID storage, I really don't burn DVDs much anymore; I just store MP4s. VirtualDub is *almost* where I need it to be, but I don't have time to get a PhD in codec internals. I've had trouble finding a simple tool for XVid encoding, while Nero overcomes my lack of knowlege admirably.
The other non-free tools I use often are VideoReDo and ConvertXToDVD. VLC is a best-of-breed player with an improving set of transcoding features, and I use that for playback of the MP4 files I make with Nero Recode (MCE chokes on `em). Between all those, I have no unmet video needs. Well ok, Shrink and Decrypter might *occasionally* be required; despite having a completely legit CSS-compliant DVD codec on my system (nVidia), I still get occasional CSS errors when trying to play commercial DVDs in MCE. Decrypter's iso capability is the simplest way I've found to play the disc when that bug rears its ugly head. (As a matter of principle, I treat the iso as inseparable from the physical disc, and if it was a rental, I delete the iso when the disc goes back to Netflix).
In the "free transcoding tools" category, one probably should mention Gordian Knot (especially AutoGK), MediaCoder and MeGUI, all of which are on my system but rarely used anymore given the above.
Pi Ran Out
From TFA, on restoring licenses:
"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)."
I'm not versed in iTunes specs, but could this be one (of many) avenues to make it more difficult to use iTMS? Or at least cause FUD against Apple?
Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but given M$'s past behavior...and they are releasing their own version of an iPod soon... hmmm....
Who put this thing together? Me, that's who.
Yeah, raping the rights of the artists is what the RIAA companies do.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
What this means to the general user is "buy a new computer and you lose all your stuff". That's going to hurt Dell and HP (both of whom are already hurting big-time).
We've already had this happen with TV sets. The HDMI/HDCP debacle is interfering with big-screen HTDV sales. Anyone who bought a HDTV screen and discovered it wouldn't work with a Blu-Ray player has been badly burned already. HDTV adoption has been much slower than expected, and botched DRM is partly to blame. The display DRM, the set-top box DRM, the broadcast DRM, and the PVR DRM all have to work together seamlessly, and they don't.
I'm just tired of all this crap. Aren't you? I refuse to be an indentured customer to a specific music store and a specific computer and a specific portal device.
- Just because you can't, doesn't mean you shouldn't