Microsoft music copy protection cracked again
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft downplayed Tuesday the impact of a new hack of its DRM technology, underlining the difficulties in erecting a long-lasting digital barrier against piracy. Doom9.org, a hacking forum, contained a post last Friday from "Divine Tao," presumably the hacker responsible, with download links for the updated version of FairUse4WM. The program, which was released last August, strips the DRM technology that limits how Windows Media files can be used and prevents illegal file sharing. "Microsoft is aware of the DRM issue, and the breach response team is verifying the circumvention," said a company statement. Windows Media DRM is used, for example, on songs sold through online song retailer Napster. Songs purchased from there can't copied to more than three computers, but there are no restrictions on how many times an individual song can be burned to a CD. Hacking activists argue they created FairUse4WM since they deserve broader freedom to move legitimately purchased content from device to device. Removal of the DRM, however, also allows the files to be copied without restriction or uploaded to file-sharing networks, which the recording industry believes has caused a massive sales decline. Microsoft has updated its DRM technologyÂ at least twice before to halt the effectiveness of FairUse4WM and said its DRM system is designed to support dynamic updates. The updates do not require a new release of Windows Media Player or the Windows Media Format Software Development Kit, used by developers to employ the DRM system, Microsoft said. Microsoft did not give a timetable as to when it may update Windows Media DRM to block the latest version of FairUse4WM. Nonetheless, the company acknowledged the DRM system's inherent vulnerability to hackers. "Microsoft has long stated that no DRM system is impervious to circumvention, a position Microsoft's content partners are aware of as well," the company said. Microsoft filed a lawsuitÂ in a district court in Seattle last September against 10 unnamed defendants for copyright infringement related to the release of FairUse4WM. The suit, however, was later dropped after the defendants could not be located. Record labels are increasingly considering removing DRM from their songs after years of lawsuits and legal wrangling have done little to reduce illegal file sharing. In April, EMI Group said it would sell songs on Apple's iTunes Music Store without DRM. The DRM-free songs cost about 20 percent more but are also encoded at 256Kbps, a higher quality than other songs with DRM.
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Users of the music player should watch out for hacked themes; a flaw allows would-be intruders to take control of PCs.
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The new flaw is unrelated to the help-file flaws discovered by a Chinese security company last week. Microsoft took the Chinese security group to task for disclosing the vulnerability without giving the company a chance to develop a fix.
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A European indie music label is taking an unusual approach to the issue of CD copy protection - it is branding all its releases with a sticker proclaiming the absence of any such control measure.
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Visitors with a pirated copy of Windows may lose easy access to company&#39;s Download Center. As part of its efforts to combat software piracy, Microsoft is testing a new feature on its Download Center Web site that can lock out pirated copies of Windows.
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A French CD duplicator has agreed to compensate MicrosoftÂ after producing discs with unauthorized copies of Microsoft software, the companies said Tuesday.
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Down with the kids Teenage intellectual property (IP) law swotters are less likely to illegally download music and film files from the internet than their clueless counterparts, Microsoft claimed yesterday.â¦
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Microsoft is pointing to a server error that caused a weekend snafu in which legitimate customers were accused of stealing software. Thousands of legit copies of Windows XP and Vista were identified by Microsoft&#39;s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation system as pirated.
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As part of its growing effort to thwart piracy, Microsoft is offering free photo slideshow software to customers who verify that they have a genuine copy of Windows.
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(InfoWorld) - Continuing itsÂ worldwide assault on software piracy, Microsoft has filed 20 lawsuits against resellers accused of distributing unauthorized copies of its software. The lawsuits, filed against 20 resellers in the U.S., accuse the companies of either distributing counterfeit software on CDs or installing it on PCs that are then sold to consumers and businesses, a practice known as hard disk loading, Microsoft said Tuesday. The software maker filed the lawsuits in nine U.S. states. The names of the companies and the states where they are located are listed in a Microsoft statementÂ available here. Microsoft also announced the results of its first large-scale forensic analysis of counterfeit versions of Windows acquired in 17 countries. The company found that 34 percent of the 348 counterfeit copies analyzed could not be installed on computers, and that 43 percent contained additional programs that aren't part of Windows. The legal actions and the forensic analysis are part of Microsoft's broader Genuine Software Initiative, a program to protect the company's intellectual property. In 2005, MicrosoftÂ introduced Windows Genuine AdvantageÂ (WGA) as part of this initiative. WGA automatically checks that customers using Windows Update, Microsoft Update for Windows and the Microsoft Download Center have a legitimate version of Windows before they can download updates from those services.
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Sony is abandoning its copy-protected CDs that use built-in technology to limit copying them. The CDs allow users to copy their music once for free onto a personal computer, but use the internet to charge a fee for subsequent copies of the same disc.
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&quot;Compared to iTunes, Microsoft&#39;s music store currently offers only half the songs and is missing many features, but its biggest problem may be that its downloaded songs do not play on iPod, iPod
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Microsoft Corp. will combat piracy of  its flagship operating system by requiring Windows users to  verify that their copy of the software is genuine in order to  receive timely updates and security fixes, the world's largest  software maker said on Wednesday.
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Microsoft Windows users need to watch out for several flaws in non-Microsoft media players.
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Microsoft has begun a short-term validation programme aimed at tackling software piracy. Users are invited to have their copies of Windows XP analysed, with the promise that they will be replaced free of charge if found to be counterfeit.
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Microsoft Corp. will combat piracy of its flagship operating system by requiring Windows users to verify that their copy of the software is genuine in order to receive timely updates and security fixes, the world's largest software maker said on Wednesday.
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Sony Music Entertainment Japan has decided to drop the copy-protection on its CDs from November 17 onwards. Copy protection was introduced by the company in January last year.