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Zune DRM Cracked
An anonymous reader noted that Zune Scene is reporting that the Zune DRM has been cracked with software now available that strips the DRM from Zune Marketplace tracks and those shared with WiFi.
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It means someone bought a Zune.
This is the announcement that's been so desperately needed to kickstart Zune sales...
No one cares. Breaking AACS, iTunes, or even CSS was a big (albeit inevitable) deal, but I suspect most of us just shrug this story off for one simple reason--Microsoft, with its ill-thought-out strategy of expanding into every conceivable market at once, at whim, and with no controlling strategy has made itself an irrelevant bit player in multiple markets.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
Now I can listen to music that I didn't buy for the media player I didn't purchase on an MP3 player that I don't possess!
Isn't technology awesome?
You cant blame Microsoft. This crack was a really long time coming all things considered. I guess if it was more popular somebody might have cared to crack it sooner. I still think congratulations are in order for surviving this long. Also, even if buying a Zune seems somewhat silly, this provides an interesting statistic on the ongoing failures of DRM.
-- http://thegirlorthecar.com funny dating game for guys
I recall Steve Jobs claiming back in February that if iTunes Fairplay was cracked, they were under contract with the Record Labels to repair the crack within something like 24 hours. He used this as a reason why Apple couldn't license Fairplay to third-parties. Do you think M$ has a similar agreement? Maybe the Labels will have to wait until Patch Tuesday.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127943
In a word, No.
The problem with DRM, in a nutshell, is that you ultimately have to provide the keys for accessing the content to the end user. All DRM, no matter how it's designed, is at the most basic level just security through obscurity. Since decryption keys have to be provided to the end user it's just a matter of time before one of the (potentially) millions of users worldwide manages to find those keys and figure out how to make use of them. Companies spend more and more on trying to restrict access to those keys, and now to revoke compromised keys (think AACS), but even that's a losing battle. Companies spend tons of money and some teenaged hacker in Russia still manages to crack the encryption fairly quickly. It's a no-win battle for the companies. They just haven't admitted defeat yet.
We hardcore and tech savvy users usually crack, mod or unlock any device we got ours hand into (Ipods, cell phones, DVD Players, Apple TV, etc) but it doesn't solve Six pack Joe's DRM problems. He will get a Zune, won't bother or know how to crack it and play along MS and MAFIAA's rules.
The same thing will happen with our parents and most people. The solution is buying products that are open and DRM free in the first place.
It's even more simple than that. If one person can write it another will crack it. No piece of code is unbreakable, some just take longer than others. None of these companies are going to spend the kind of money that NSA does on this issue.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
For years now we've been hearing that Mac OS X is less vulnerable to viruses and cracking because it has a far smaller marketshare than Windows. The argument is that nobody bothers with OS X because of the smaller marketshare. Although Zune DRM is being cracked for a different purpose, it does make me wonder if marketshare is much of a factor in decisions regarding which systems crackers attempt to defeat.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Here are the links to the FairUse4WM :
FileSend
zUpload
Files-Upload
zShare
QuickSharing
SendSpace
ShareBee
MD5 hash 0d5eaa7f8010e1293221a320943adb7e
Via:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127943
-- Zune-Online.com Share your Zune Experience!
No, cracking your own DRM won't allow you to reach your Zune sales goals either.
You miss the point. Because the Zune can network with other Zune, this now means that people have a way to pirate songs over a network.
Oh, wait. Never mind.
Yes, you are quite a "genious."
DRM exists entirely for the protection of the RIAA, not Microsoft. This will only increase the popularity of the Zune. An mp3 player that can share files over wifi with no restrictions, sign me up. I can't see Microsoft being too proactive about locking down the DRM again.
Does this mean I'll be able to play my Microsoft PlaysForSure tracks on my Microsoft Zune now?
As much as i hate Itunes, its actually a nice program (just programmed like complete shit on the PC) But anyways... the Windows Media Player is HORRIBLE. It mangled all of my music and i had to do all my tags. I do like WMP's ability to show the controls on task bar though. Other than that.. i'm not a fan of WMP right now. Eww yuck..
Oh yeah DRM cracked? Who didnt see that coming? DRM is dead. Its a stupid idea to rally your share holders around. The real truth is, the people have spoken and we dont want DRM and we will avoid buying wherever possible and there will be brilliant digital equivalents to George Washington, that will crack all of this nonsense.
Well, if I ever can't find a specific song, say, using Ares Galaxy, and have to look in the Zune Marketplace, now I'll be able to clean the DRM off of it.
...Yes, this means I'm one of those people who actually bought a Zune. I love the thing. No, I did not get a brown one. The brown makes it look too much like a friggin' candy bar made out of-- well, you know.
Probably never need it, but I suppose it's good to have the ability.
Sig? What's that? Oh, 'signature'...and it's supposed to be witty? Right...
Parent comment directly contradicts the groupthink that no one bought a Zune, and no one ever will. So, which is it? Is the Zune going to be bought, or is it going to tank?
I heard it uses even shittier specialized Zune-Ware That doesn't work with the Zune...
Ditto. I've had my iRiver H10 for over 2 years, just replaced the battery on it and never had an issue with DRM. It also has one crucial feature I haven't seen in another MP3 player: it records FM radio. I work in radio, so it's nice to be able to aircheck on the fly.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Unfortunately, there is another option. if you can force your uses to connect to yourservers before they can use your product, you can have new keys developed (and restricted) much faster than they can be hacked. WoW does not have a piracy problem.
All that effort to make a post and you didn't even bother making it semi-useful by including a link..
I guess it's the consensus around here that the Zune is a horrible piece of junk. The place I work bought some Zunes and some iPods and some other portable media players and I got a chance to take each home for a few weeks.
I really kind of liked the Zune. To my surprise it wasnt' that ugly brown color. All my (non-DRM) music played just fine, and I even kind of liked the way the Zune sounded with a pair of the $40 JBL 210 reference ear pods. The videos played well and the interface was acceptable. Battery life was pretty good.
I didn't try the wifi stuff, but the unit I tried compared nicely with the 30gig iPod.
I'd never buy one myself because I make a concerted effort to avoid giving Microsoft my business, but it wasn't the horrible crap that I'd been led to believe by that group of people who only seem to post at Slashdot when the issue turns to something having to do with, or competing with, Apple. I have heard that if you look at those people out of the corner of your eye you only see a black silhouette of a dancing gen-Y'er with fake dreadlocks.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Yes, "chosing" between PNG and JPEG isn't really that hard.
You'll have to snort instead of shooting up, but this might help. And it comes with a free blender.
For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
But this is just another layer of security through obscurity. I've seen some anti-DRM tools that simply intercept the connection attempts to DRM servers and return back seemingly valid responses. They can revoke all the keys they want on their servers but if the connection to the server is intercepted and a bogus ACK is sent back instead then the DRM is defeated yet again.
As far as key revocation goes, I think the guys over at Doom9 have shown that the AACS attempts at this are lacking as well. They've been able to publish new keys within 24 hours of them being released by the AACS license authority. It takes a lot more effort for the AACSLA to revoke old keys and publish new ones than it does the hackers to uncover the new keys.
I ment the codebreaking and secre cryptography that they work on 24/7.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
If there's a way for the user to hear the song (or otherwise use the content) there's a way for the DRM to get cracked.
Bigtime Consulting - "We're the best because we cost the most"
On the other hand, you have to look at the reason the media companies use DRM of one sort or another. And that's because it works. Yes, they'll always be cracked sooner or later. However, that means nothing in terms of raw sales because the vast majority of your customers will never be aware of that fact, or too afraid to try it, or too technically inept to find the tools and use them. So far as those people are concerned, your DRM scheme is perfect because they'll never, ever manage to get around it, even if they wanted to.
CSS was cracked years ago, and now tools to copy DVDs are readily available: just Google "DVD Shrink" for one example. That being the case, why do virtually all commercial DVDs have CSS still on them? Because it raises the bar high enough so that only a relative few will be able to manipulate that data in a manner not of the studio's choosing. That's just as true today as it was before DVD Jon came along and shook the applecart.
DRM is like most things: it doesn't have to be perfect, it only needs to be good enough. The RIAA learned that lesson after decades of focusing on the control of "digitally perfect copies". They were shocked at the popularity of Napster and early MP3 rips, because those rips were anything but perfect. They were, however, good enough for a heck of a lot of people. That fact cuts both ways.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Has anyone emailed the 4 people who own Zunes yet and let them know?
I think two of them were non-techies, so they may not know.
But, still, it's not as simple as that they don't have the same resources that NSA do to throw at the problem. The real issue is that the problem they try to solve is fundamentally harder.
That's not necessarily true... properly-implemented public key cryptography is pretty close to unbreakable. Read up on it here. The problem with DRM is that all of the keys necessary to view the content are by definition in the possession of the user. Once the user has all of the keys, it is just a matter of time before the unencrypted content can be extracted. It does not matter if you mail out little encrypted cards, require a dial-in, etc... in the end if the user can see the content, they can copy it - though perhaps not without modifying the hardware (even if only through firmware).
If it weren't for the DMCA, DRM would be completely useless... but now that it is illegal to crack the DRM all of the activity must stay underground or outside of countries with DMCA-like legislation.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
When that becomes widespread, then someone will start building 'fake' hardware. In fact, this hardware will probably be an emulator running on top of a general purpose computer.
That pretty much matches what I've heard from a Zune owner. His gripe isn't with the player's interface or the hardware itself, but rather the deliberate crippling of the wifi and the horrible PC-side software.
I don't know why everyone keeps bashing the Zune. I love mine! It is the perfect size to shim up that old table in my den with a short leg.
How ya like dat?
you are incorrect. It's the consensus here that the Zune is a great piece of hardware. everyone agrees it has a fantastic screen awesome power and is overall a incredible device.....
that was turned into a turd by the software that it runs. They took the decent software inside and then shoved DRM in by the heaploads. Making it a turd.
That makes it the horribly piece of junk.
Once it's cracked and a 3rd party firmware can be installed to run it, I'll be buying 2 or more of them. In it's current DRM and windows Locked state, nobody wants it.
Microsoft catered so hard to the RIAA and MPAA organized crime families that they ruined the product.
it's like the microsoft keyboards, they are actually awesome, but nobody would own one if they refused to type words or phrases that were on a banned list.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"the Windows Media Player is HORRIBLE. It mangled all of my music and i had to do all my tags. "
You can turn this off. Its just as easy as it is in iTunes, which mangles all your music as well by default.
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
Oh wait, wrong decade. You're letting the terrorists win!
I think zune's color is best described as "turd brown covered with snot green". Seriously, I think brown zunes are a practical joke to just see if people will buy it better after every single exec from Microsoft said that "brown is the new black". To measure the gullibility so to speak.
Actually, it might even increase sales, which all goes to show how DRM isn't good for hardware sales.
I doubt anyone will buy a Zune over this. A few might but it's just as big a con as the "get paid for sharing pirated music" story next to it. The bait is that you will use some kind of M$ subscription to build a music collection, then liberate it. The problems are that WMA is shit and M$ will break it. The same scheme has been available for previous generations of Windoze DRM players and all of them have been dismal flops. There are far cheaper and easier ways to build a music collection than buying a Zune. People's aversion to rented music is so great that they would rather buy CDs than risk the same money on a scheme that may or may not work. Shame on M$ for promoting behavior they claim to abhor.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
They were known for quality keyboards for a long time. I have three older Microsoft keyboards (a couple of years or so) and they are pretty awesome. Double-shot keys (i.e., the plastic lettering is molded all the way through the keycaps so it can't fade), fairly hefty, keys have a nice feel. Never had a problem with them.
Sounds like Microsoft got cheap. Too bad.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
For years now we've been hearing that Mac OS X is less vulnerable to viruses and cracking because it has a far smaller marketshare than Windows.
No.
OS X is less vulnerable because its components expose a much smaller surface area to attack.
OS X is attacked less often because it has a smaller marketshare.
These are both in OSX favor, but it's the first that is the really important one. Yes, black hats preferentially target the more popular platform. But they don't *exclusively* target it... if that were the major factor in OS X relative security then you would expect it to have *fewer* active viruses in the wild... but not so near to zero that you can basically ignore them.
What's an example of the kind of component I'm talking about?
Between 1997 and 1998 the virus problem on Windows went from an annoyance to a disaster. Up to then Windows was a lot more like OS X today than Windows today... or even Windows in 2000. Up to then the typical user had been pretty much safe from malware so long as they did not download dodgy software from BBSes or online archives.
Windows market share did not also increase thousands of times over that period... but something did change, and that was the surface area exposed to attack. In particular, what was originally called "Active Desktop" created a whole new *kind* of attack, because it was actually designed to allow web pages (and anything else that used the HTML control, including mail messages) to install and run native Windows plugins through a mechanism called ActiveX.
Oh, yes, they have all kinds of checks to keep it from happening when you don't want it to, but the fact that it's possible at all was something unique to Windows and IE.
It's that kind of design, one that is much more common in Windows than anywhere else, that makes Windows so uniquely attractive to attackers. It's not just that Windows is everywhere... it leaves the key under the mat as well.
I'll bet Zune owners are celebrating with a circle-squirt.
Hmm, seeing as I choose neither the Microsoft-based evil or the Apple-based evil, if we're all choosing whichever evil suits us I guess mine is piracy? (Honestly what I tend to do is download music, then if I like it I go out and buy it in vinyl; some crazy-cool record companies are even offering free mp3 downloads with vinyl purchases, if one wants to do things entirely the "legit" way). But honestly I don't think you have to choose an evil that suits you . . . there are other choices out there besides evil! Don't act like people have to use the iTMS and the only small alternative is the Zune store or something.
(Personally my own caveat is that I like-to-the-point-of-need things in lossless, and hell, we have the storage nowadays so there's no excuse . . . much of my music is in FLAC, and it actually pains my ears to hear things from iTMS).
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
As a proud owner of a brand-new SpaceSaver from Unicomp, I have to agree. Worth every penny, though the postage cost me as much as the keyboard itself.
Wouldn't know about characters fading, though; mine's a blank, like Das Keyboard.
Ignore this signature. By order.
MSN wasn't to compete with google, or yahoo, or any of the search engines. It was originally a pointless little frontend for dialup connectivity and eventually became a full-fledged browser to compete with AOL. The browser also combined with the Hotmail interface for e-mail when MS acquired that. Later versions it became an actual e-mail client using a microsoft-based protocol. The search engine feature was common for just about any browser-based Dialup ISP (like AOL). Notice how similar MSN Messenger is similar to AIM? Wonder where they got that idea from.
It wasn't until Microsoft began the MSN AdCenter project which launched last year and had been in development for maybe a year or two prior, that they were actually directly competing with Google's adSense business model.
At any rate, around '02-04 Microsoft did a lot of kicking and screaming about operating systems. This was when the Longhorn propaganda machine was in effect. Lots of shouting about how they were actually paying attention to security, overhauling the whole Windows project from scratch, releasing Server 2003... Oh, and this was about when they gave SCO a whole bunch of money, and soon after SCO sues IBM for putting nonexistant proprietary code into linux, thus casting FUD upon all the linux community. I remember back then, Ballmer was throwing chairs around the office when someone would mention linux rather than Google. Microsoft's shift of competition focus in recent years is probably one of the main reasons rumours spawned up a couple years back about Google putting out its own OS.
Karma: Non-Heinous
If Zune DRM strips for free, imagine what it would do for a dollar.
Zune, zune, zune!
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOAD "SIG",8,1
What was with the larger delete key anyway? I had the misfortune to use a MS keyboard which had one on a daily basis, along side five or six others that featured a "normal" size delete key. I came to the conclusion that if you only used the MS keyboard for the rest of your life you would be fine with the new configuration - otherwise forget being able to touch type effectivley.
Completely different issue. The value in WoW lies in the server and interactive content, not in the playback of recorded media.
Nothing prevents you from recording your WoW session.
I lost my sig.
After nearly losing it (!!!) over trying to get my wife's Nano updated with new songs under Vista, Redchair's Anapod explorer dropping the synch every so often, I just decided it wasn't worth the agony and the stress. The whole situation just really started to get under my skin.
So went out and bought two 4gb Samsung K3s. Beautiful piece of hardware, and as long as you stay away from the included software, completely DRM free. Synchs beautifully with WMP, which will convert my lossless CD rips to 192kbps versions. Or I could just drop suitable WMA or MP3 files straight into the folder structure.
[angry rant]
Not having to stress out battling the proprietary DRM solutions in Apple's players will give me a longer life, I'm sure. So yeah, just f*#k DRM, give me players I can just use like I want any day. As long as I'm not allowed to use legitimately purchased music any way I see fit, you'll never see me pay $$$ for downloads. As long as CD can still be ripped, I'll continue buying those - and copying to my car, HTPC, work PC, home PC and portable players as I bloody well see fit. I paid for my music, now let me use it. Anyway, when it is so much easier to just torrent an album than get set up with a commercial DRM provider, they really are kidding themselves about how they're dealing with the whole piracy issue.
[/angry rant]
ISO certified == THX certified
The main thing wrong with the Zune was it was too expensive.
The iPod is the iPod. Love it or hate it. But there is an entire group of industries that have sprung up around it for cases, speakers, car adapters, microphones, software, so that when you buy an iPod, you have your choice of "stuff".
Along comes the Zune. It's kinda like the iPod, a little bit more Soviet looking, but for consumers, kinda the same. Except no comparable infrastructure like the iPod. So you're pioneer, but with no upside, because at best, even if the Zune took off, you'd be right where the iPod is today.
So Microsoft had to come in and blow away the iPod on price. Except it was the same price, with no options for a lower/entry level (i.e. $100) model.
So rationally, who would buy this thing, except by accident. Microsoft needed to price this thing at $199, routinely discounted to $150. It's just funny to me that in a company that probably has more MBA's than all of Wharton and Harvard combined that nobody saw this fatal flaw. And really, the Zune has bombed so badly that they've dug themselves a hole in terms of perception.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
This is exactly the good news that could make the Zune take off. I wouldn't be surprised if the Zune division leaked the cracks into the marketplace itself to try to make the player more popular.
--
Toro
You can actually display itunes embedded in the task bar too!
Right-click on the task bar, and go to toolbars, and select the itunes toolbar.
just thought you'd like to know. It was a nifty feature when I was stuck on a tiny single screen for awhile.
Gravity Sucks
It's much larger and heavier than an iPod. The interface is not as simple or intuitive, but clunky.
Even aside from that, at time of launch it cost more than a simmilar iPod!
The only thing the Zune ever had going for it was WiFi. And Microsoft botched that up so bad it's ridiculous (why no Zireless sync? Why no wirless purchase of music?)
The fact that they went to the trouble and expense to include WiFi but not include these basic features people would WANT it for is ridiculous. and indicates they did not do proper market research. The whole "WiFi share" idea is also retarded in a number of ways.
Doesnt MS see why PCs were so popular during the 80s ?
They were NOT LOCKED, to one piece of generic software, but could run anything, zero drm.
You could buy software, and pirate it or make it your self. It was total software freedom for the consumer of said hardware, you could do anything to it liked.
If MS made the zune like a mini-pc, 100% open, it would be #1. Software makes hardware more powerfull/valuable, bad software can make good hardware look crap.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Given the zunepass subscription model, someone could effectively grab a ridiculous amount of free music for any player (including ipods). Heck, you can even download the zuneplayer without owning a zune, but don't think it will let you subscribe without one. And then cancel the zunepass subscription when they are done. Given sheer logistics, its probably impossible to grab the entire marketplace, but you probably could grab just about everything you wanted, at least until they patch this and i'm sure they have people working overtime on this. Because the danger is that the RIAA would pull their stuff out of the marketplace if they don't feel confident microsoft can protect their content, they're already overly nervous about something like a subscription and wifi sharing, to the point where they'd crippled much of the device's potential.
I use a zune, mainly for the subscription model, the player is nice for some things but there are times I'd rather use my sony ericsson phone because its a lot smaller, heck, i use it sometimes although that's limited to my none-zune marketplace content... My zune is more used in my car and at my desk. But I take it with me elsewhere at times because of the greatly expanded content I have access to on it. at least till now, where this would allow me to listen to it on that device. I'd happily keep paying my subscription fee if I had a means to listen to it on the device of my choice. You know, like that playsforsure concept...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
As a mere Vista user I'm interested in knowing what version of WMP you used Last time I checked Windows Media Player 11 (as it comes installed) doesn't automatically alter your MP3's. I've just moved my vista installation over to a new hard drive and opening WMP for the second time then going to the library drop down arrow then to "More options" The following are the defaults:
[x]Delete Files when deleted from my library
[x]Retrieve additional information from the internet
[x]Only add missing information
[ ]Overwrite all Media information
[ ]Rename music files using rip music settings
[ ]Rearrange rip music in rip music folder, using rip music settings
[x]Maintain my star ratings as global ratings in files
So by default it might add composer information or an auto rating to the id3 tag it won't change the album photo it won't change the artist, it won't change the album name. Compare to my recent expearence with iTunes 7.10 which I installed to see if it had improved. First off it tried taking all my music and putting it into a Itunes Folder inside ther My Music folder, while it was doing this it find the dozen or so WMA's I have and began converting them to AAC's a format. To make matters worse quicktime assumed control for any MP3's I streamed from online (blocking WMP) and it dispersed one of my old compilation albums into a series of single 3 song singles all of which were incorrectly labelled. The fact it won't recognise a flash drive or my PPC phone as something it could sync to was just the icing on the cake for me.
Yes DRM's end is coming and hopefully it will be soon I am truely looking forward to the day when I can just run a media centre PC with all my DVD's & CD's ripped onto it without wondering where I actually stand legally. I own more than 200 DVD's now if I think a film is good I'll buy it at a price I think the film is worth it you don't have to assume I'm a crock.
Sony calls new BD+ blu-ray DRM "uncrackable."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I mean, really, MS made it an easy target for ridicule. Meanwhile people have a lot of reason to resent Microsoft. Why wouldn't you expect people to ridicule the Zune?
I'm using a MS keyboard right now, and I tell you, it's a piece of really nice keyboard :)
What the hell? That's not what I typed
The Zune has no more DRM than does the iPod*, and you guys orgasm over the very mention of the word "iPod". Hypocrisy at its finest.
* Save your breath regarding the Zune DRM'ing wifi-shared tracks, since iPod doesn't have wifi-sharing to begin with. And if MS didn't DRM wifi-shared tracks, it's be open season for pirates, and you guys *know* that. That would be death to the subscription model (Zune's store supports both purchases and subscriptions).
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
You are welcome on my lawn.
Doesnt seem to work in vista 32. I see the itunes toolbar in the list of toolbars but it doesnt display. In vista 64 i dont even see it in the list of tool bars
I used WMP11. I never said it automatically altered them. I used their tool to update the tags and album art, and they all showed up as untitiled. WMP always had 3 versions of the same dam album (songs list and album art were the same)... and never got anything right.
It ruined my collection. I do not like WMP11 at all.