Comments on: Hackers crack Apple, Microsoft music codes

The arms race continues as determined programmers find ways to circumvent the two leading digital rights management technologies for music.

[toosday]

Um..ORLY?

"...separate programs have emerged to strip away the DRM tools that the two technology giants use to protect music from unauthorized duplication."

Um... the DRM tools are hardly used primarily to protect music form duplication anymore; they are used to lock users into a proprietary digital system.

[SteveDave2]

YA RLY

Since iTunes lets you listen to a given m4p on only 5 different machines, yeah, it's used to prevent unauthorized duplication.

But that's what you're agreeing to when you buy from the ITMS. Don't like it? Buy the CD and rip DRM free. The choice and the money are yours. Speak with your wallet.

-SD-

[JerzeyRich]

No Hack Needed

That a hack exists to break the DRM is irrelevant. There are programs available for free online that will convert WMAs to MP3s while retaining great sound quality.

I buy the great majority of my music legally from either Napster or MSN Music, both of which sell DRM'd tracks. But since I take advantage of fair use and copy them from my home machine to my laptop, mp3 player, and work desktop, I get rid of the DRM.

Sure I'm probably violating the TOS but I'm the only one with access to all those machines so only I hear those tracks. To me, that equals fair use.

[catch23]

The funny thing is

if more people behaved like you and actually honored the concept of 'fair use', we wouldn't be in this DRM mess to begin with.

[J.G.]

Is all that necessary in Windows world?

Apple allows DRMed content to be played on all the devices you named. That is the reason that the claims people who want to steal music make about Apple and DRM fall flat. Apple's DRM is quite liberal.

[notgonnatellya]

Lossy transcoding is not a solution

If you convert from one lossy codec to another, you necessarilly end up with a lower quality sound file. Given that the WMV and AAC are already inferior to CD Audio, that is not an acceptable solution.

I probably would never buy a lossy audio file, but I definitely would never buy a DRMed lossy file. What happens if that apple or MS's DAPs are crap in 10 years and you want a Pioneer model (or whatever). If you bought your stuff from iTunes or whatever MS's store is, you have to rebuy your music, illegally strip DRM or transcode and end up with a file that sounds worse.

Would any of us buy a CD if it could only be played on one brand of CD player? If you had Vinyl, did it only work on a specific brand of turn table? No it did not and neither should sound files.

I believe artists should be paid for their music, but the best thing that could happen is if the RIAA lost some major cases that forced them to either remove DRM or allow a person who purchased a WMV file to get an AAC version or vice versa.

[notgonnatellya]

Lossy transcoding is not a solution

If you convert from one lossy codec to another, you necessarilly end up with a lower quality sound file. Given that the WMV and AAC are already inferior to CD Audio, that is not an acceptable solution.

I probably would never buy a lossy audio file, but I definitely would never buy a DRMed lossy file. What happens if that apple or MS's DAPs are crap in 10 years and you want a Pioneer model (or whatever). If you bought your stuff from iTunes or whatever MS's store is, you have to rebuy your music, illegally strip DRM or transcode and end up with a file that sounds worse.

Would any of us buy a CD if it could only be played on one brand of CD player? If you had Vinyl, did it only work on a specific brand of turn table? No it did not and neither should sound files.

I believe artists should be paid for their music, but the best thing that could happen is if the RIAA lost some major cases that forced them to either remove DRM or allow a person who purchased a WMV file to get an AAC version or vice versa.

[chris11-1]

Theres one way that nothing can prevent!

theres a simple way using a higher end sound card and sound recorder to defeat any copy protection around!

[GatesOfHell]

Oh, the PAIN of the Upgrade!

"Apple typically issues updates to the iTunes software itself,
often adding in other features in addition to security-related
changes. Microsoft, meanwhile, typically offers patches just to
the DRM technology, meaning that those who use its technology
can patch their software and services without having to upgrade
their entire program. Such was the case with the patch Microsoft
issued this week."

I'm switching to Microsoft so that when their DRM is broken
again I won't have to upgrade my entire program. LOL

[MadHackerMike]

DRM: A NON-ISSUE

Once the music has been downloaded, simply burn an audio cd of it. Then, use any program to rip it from your disc in unprotected MP3 with WMP or MusicMatch free jukebox. DRM is gone! >POOF!<

[Tomcat Adam]

Because, as we all know

CD's grow on trees.

[brilo]

First things first

Those who crack, are called Crackerz...breakers...reenigne....etc. They're not hackers!
NEwayz, I couldnt agree with Toosday more, they're trying to lock you into their format for the long haul!
This word is called, Interoperability you sons of B*tches!!! The consumers want it, the teX want it, but those b@stards are too interested in making cash!!!!!!!!!!

[markdmac]

DRM encourages illegal downloading

I've always tried to be legal and would purchase my music from buymusic.com. At $.99 a song it was reasonable to me. Then they introduced this DRM crap and I found that I could no longer copy newly paid for and downloaded music to my MP3 player. I only have the one device for crying out loud. So I found I was paying for music I could not use, then downloading the same music on LimeWire just to be able to listen to what I paid for. Rediculous! DRM is a useless deterent for those people who are willing to legally pay for music and doesn't stop those that will illigally download. This concept simply needs to be abandoned.

[J.G.]

Downloaded anything from LimeWire lately?

Like many people who break the law you are full of rationalizations. That doesn't make your behavior any more legal than if you were not.

Furthermore, you are a liar. There was never a time when the iTunes Music Store did not have DRM.

[GGGlen]

Gee

Since Napster and other peer to peer services existed YEARS before
DRM, I'd have to have to say you're wrong.
Illegal downloading came WAAAAY before DRM ever saw the light
of day.

[grandmasterdibbler]

What a sad time.

I got into music fairly recently, about 2 years ago.
I could never justify the cost of CDs because I didn't really know what I liked so I was led astray into some dodgy practices by some of my other cheapskate friends. But in a way that helped as I discovered the sort of music I like (Black Sabbath, RATM, Audioslave, Eagles, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Rush) and it meant I could go and buy CDs with confidence that I'd like them and now I've got a fairly substantial collection on my iPod and some ITMS tracks and I'm happy.


The moral of the story buy CDs while you can, remember the XCP rootkit? We must all destroy Sony as it is evil, cocky, stupid and only wants to make money instead of bettering the products it makes.

Oh and stop blaming Apple and MS for DRM blame the greedy fools at the record companies who are single handedly destroying their own market by driving people to illegal music and then suing them !?

[chris11-1]

the record comanies/RIAA/CRIA are the most greedy groups around

The artists make an album, they get a major deal, they sell it on ITMS, the label takes home 50%, the artists take home 10%! So lets see who's getting rich, THE LABEL, yet theyre the ones claiming that theyre losing money! NEWS FLASH!! THE ARTISTS ARE DOING ALL THE WORK, PAY THEM ACCORDINGLY!!!

[disco-legend-zeke]

Locks Don't Stop Thieves, they just keep the Honest People Honest

There is ALWAYS a way to make a copy of a song or video.

Put a mirror in front of your monitor, and you can watch two versions of a movie at once.

Put a camera and a microphone there, and you have a copy.

The honest person won't bother. The videophile won't accept the poor quality.

[jsac77]

pwned (cracked again!!)

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/fairuse4wm-peeps-stay-one-step-ahead-of-microsoft

[thedreaming]

The problem with DRM

DRM does a very important job. It makes the content providers happy. No provider will put their catalog of music or videos out there without some sort of protection and that's what DRM provides: The illusion of protection.

When itunes first made the scene, I installed it and found a nice like called "Free download of the week". I kept clicking it each week and I kept download a free song, each week. Add to that the music that pepsi was giving away and soon I had a cd's worth of music. Now, how to get it from itunes to my mp3 player, which wasn't an ipod? Simple, burn a cd, then rip the cd using my favorite music cd ripping software and bingo, problem solved and without breaking anyone's DRM or violating the DMCA.

[yipching]

U can just burn iTunes music and rip the disc

How hard is that? Burn your DRM music to a CD, then rip it back license-free. Don't need special programs or security holes for that...

[ddesy]

Problem....

If you care at all about sound quality, the burn and rip scheme is useless. You take a lossy file, decompress it with the loss still there, and recompress it adding more loss.

What people are doing is trying to circumvent DRM without loosing any more sound quality than they already have.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

Crack this! Cheapest iPod i've seen

http://www.white.in/result.php?Keywords=Cheapest+iPods has the cheapest ipods I've seen in a while.

[master1m]

Musicstacker does not care aboout drm

Musicstacker process your music and produced a legal copy that has no drm. Check it out at www.musicstacker.com

Music stacker is a general all purpose music remastering tool. Dont play the drm game.

[master1m]

Musicstacker does not care aboout drm

Musicstacker process your music and produced a legal copy that has no drm. Check it out at www.musicstacker.com

Music stacker is a general all purpose music remastering tool. Dont play the drm game.

[jayperk]

Fast turnaround on pluuging DRM holes

I wish Microsoft moved so quickly to patch security holes in the rest of the software (IE, OFFICE and Windows)

[bhup22]

well if i talk about what happens in asian countries is just piracy of everything, you talk about DRM, i believe if they are so concerned about buying the original one then what do you say about torrent sites and p2p, well the thing if one buys music or software they just dont care after that and they let it get pirated and if they are so concerned about customers then i find their customers to be the culprits for their cause. and if i talk about apple and windows, then, their softwares are available for not more than 1$ in markets.lol