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RE: Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights
I agree completely. If DRM actually did ANYTHING to deter piracy then maybe
it would be justified. Fact is, it does nothing at all to deter pirates.
It is the recording companies that are pushing for this, but honestly, I
don't think that MS is doing much of anything to resist.
"MICHAEL" wrote:
> I experienced the dark force of WMP 11 very recently.
> Much, much money spent on music legally downloaded
> from various music sites, mostly MSN Music. On any
> machine that you update to WMP 11- you can no longer
> backup or restore your licenses for the .wma files you legally
> downloaded and paid for. On two of my machines- I learned
> a very hard lesson about trying to play music I *paid* for.
> Something I never thought I would say- thank you lawd for
> a hacker. This "hacker" wrote a program to strip the DRM
> crap from "protected" files. Let's see- faced with having to
> burn all my paid for .wma files to a CD and then ripping them
> back to the computer I want them to play on, or using this fast
> little program to rip that nonsense out of the files- hmm.... I
> wonder which path I took. I'm talking, literally, over a 1,000
> songs I paid for. There is one catch, a good one, to using
> this program- you have to have at least one valid license that
> matches the .wma file you are trying to rip the DRM protection from.
>
> My advice- if you are using WinXP, stay away from
> WMP 11. Don't look at it, don't download it- pretend
> it doesn't exist. You do not need it. Vista users
> don't have a choice. So, do not download any media
> "protected" by DRM.
>
> I'm sure there will be some shill that comes along and
> says this is no big deal. Well, the erosion of usage rights
> is a slow and methodical process. They, the media
> companies and Microsoft, have been "testing the waters".
> It is amazing what folks just sit back and take. I was sort
> of like that before DRM pissed me off. Fair use rights are
> becoming a thing of the past. The ironic thing, these measures
> do absolutely nothing to stop the real pirates. All it did was
> piss off this customer who tried to do the "right" thing.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights
>
> By Charlie Demerjian
>
> THINK DRM WAS bad already? Think I was joking when I said the plan was to start with barely
> tolerable incursions on your rights, then turn the thumbscrews? Welcome to Windows Media Player
> 11, and the rights get chipped away a lot more. Get used to the feeling, if you buy DRM
> infected media, you will only have this happen with increasing rapidity.
> One of the problems with WiMP11 is licensing and backing it up. If you buy media with DRM
> infections, you can't move the files from PC to PC, or at least you can't and have them play on
> the new box. If you want the grand privilege of moving that content, you need to get the
> approval of the content mafia, sign your life away, and use the tools they give you. If you
> want to do it in other ways, you are either a lawbreaker or following the advice of J Allard.
> Wait, same thing.
>
> So, in WiMP10, you just backed up your licenses, and stored them in a safe place. Buying DRM
> infections gets you a bunch of bits and a promise not to sue, but really nothing more. The
> content mafia will do anything in its power, from buying government to rootkitting you in order
> to protect those bits, and backing them up leaves a minor loophole while affording the user a
> whole lot of protection.
>
> Guess which one wins, minor loophole or major consumer rights? Yes, WiMP11 will no longer allow
> you the privilege of backing up your licenses, they are tied to a single device, and if you
> lose it, you are really SOL. Remember that feeling I mentioned earlier? This is nothing less
> than a civil rights coup, and most people are dumb enough to let it happen.
>
> Read the links, the entire page is scary as hell, but the licensing part takes the cake.
> "Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously
> known as licenses)", Wow, new terminology, old idea, you are a wallet with legs waiting to be
> raped. "The store might limit the number of times that you can restore your rights or limit the
> number of computers on which can use the songs or videos that you obtain from them. Some stores
> do not permit you to restore media usage rights at all." Translation, not our problem, and get
> bent, we got your cash.
>
> But it gets worse. If you rip your own CDs, WiMP11 will take your rights away too. If the 'Copy
> protect music' option is turned on, well, I can't top their 1984 wording. "If the file is a
> song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to
> restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft
> Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times." This says to me
> it will keep track of your ripping externally, and remove your rights whether or not you ask it
> to. Can you think of a reason you would need to connect to MS for permission to play the songs
> you ripped from you own CDs? How long do you think it will be before a service pack,
> masquerading as a 'critical security patch' takes away the optional part of the 'copy
> protection'? Now do you understand why they have been testing the waters on WiMP phoning home?
> Think their firewall will stop it even if you ask?
>
> Then when you go down on the page a bit, it goes on to show that it guts Tivo capabilities.
> After three days, it kills your recordings for you, how thoughtful of them. Going away for a
> week? Tough, your rights are inconvenient to their profits, so they have to go. "Recorded TV
> shows that are protected with media usage rights, such as some TV content recorded on premium
> channels, will not play back after 3 days when Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP is
> installed on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. No known workaround to resolve this issue
> exists at this time." Workaround my *ss, this is wholesale rights removal by design.
>
> What WiMP11 represents is one of the biggest thefts of your rights that I can think of. MS
> planned this, pushed the various pieces slowly, and this is the first big hammer to drop. Your
> rights, the promises they made, and anything else that gets in the way of the content mafia
> making yet more money gets thrown out. Why? Greed. Your rights? History. You were dumb enough
> to let it happen, don't say I didn't warn you.
>
> More:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...e.aspx#1608319
>
> Release Notes for Windows Media Player 11
>
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