Sony BMG helps customers crack DRM
posted Jun 17th 2005 6:40PM
Sony BMG has come up with an innovative solution for consumers
who are frustrated with the company's new DRM: They'll
help you break it. Turns out the new system, from the U.K.'s First4Internet, renders protected CDs unusable by iPod
owners. While Sony might hope that would drive customers to its digital audio players instead, they've chosen the more
pragmatic — and unusual — route of emailing instructions for a back door exploit to anyone who complains about the
problem (Mac users don't even need this: the DRM is PC-only). While we've heard of companies rolling out products with
easily cracked DRM, this may be the first
time a record label has actually been the source of the cracks. Thanks Sony BMG. Next time, how about just saving
everyone the hassle and skipping the stuff in the first place?
[Via Slashdot]
so exactly are the steps to bypass that protection?
don't tell me it's 'hold shift when inserting cd' :)
Macs are PCs too. Don't sink to the level of an ordinary windows user and believe that Macs are not personal computers. I use wintell to describe them now, but soon that will become a little bit odd, seeing as how Apple will use intel processors... I find this whole article very amusing, but I still hate DRM, even though I always get my stuff legally.
"mac users don't even need this-the drm is pc only"
does this mean that the cds cannot be played back on macs, or that macs ignore the drm, and just see unprotected music?
Glad to see these companies are starting to realize what a big joke this DRM business is.
Fishes,
narco.
#2 indeed! And while where at it: CDs ain't CDs any more, since MDs are even more compact! When will ppl learn!
When will they learn...
Redirect the cost they spent for DRM to the packaging/inserts, extras like websites (CD insert has password, etc), access to band news or merchandise that you can buy at a discount (*gasp* make even more money! who would have thought!), etc and people will buy the physical CD.
If the music sucks (and it has for a long time now), no one will care. Heck, even downloaders have taste.
However, kudos to them for finally recognizing that if we bought the CD, we would like to listen to it the way we want to... home stero, car stero, WMP, ipod, or *insert your method of listening here*.
Tim O., if you're going to be that pedantic, you might as well be somewhat funny too. Something like:
Macs are PCs too, in fact with all the viruses, adware, and spyware running on computers with Windows, it's debatable if those computers have anything personal left in them at all.
But anyway, PCs run Windows, hackers crack computers, and all portable audio players are called iPods. Get used it.
Hey, hey, no need to bring the fanboy comments here. This is how you get PC users to NOT switch to a Mac.
And yeah, I'm a mac switcher, too.
This is f*kin hilarious.
Probably Sony BMG did it to avoid a lawsuit.
I wrote BMG and asked for the instructions, here's what they said:
To get around the DRM you have to install their software so you can access the pre-ripped WMA files they've "generously" provided on the disc. Then you hafta burn the WMA files to yet another CD in order to re-rip them into iTunes.
I didn't do this -- I really don't feel like installing their software and listening to twice-encoded music just for the privelege of using a BMG product.
They've lost a customer. I'm never buying BMG CDs again, at least as long as they have DRM.
If you're wondering how you can tell if the disc you want to buy is this DRM kind, mine had a white sticker on the front talking about it and a bunch of hardware and software requirements on the back in tiny print. Of course, nowhere does it say "not Mac or iPod compatible". That's just assumed.
On my MACINTOSH I didn't have to worry about anything. The new Foo Fighters album, which uses this new anti-piracy stuff, ripped just fine. Take that Windows users. :)
Anyone tried ripping one of these BMG CD's with cdparanoia yet? If the choice is between not being able to rip and encode the Foo Fighters myself and using their inane "work-around," I think I'll somehow manage life without the CD.
I'm on windows XP, and I ripped the Foo Fighters album using iTunes with no problem whatsoever. Didn't even know some people had a problem until I looked on the Foo Fighter forum.
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/cd3/
This website tells you how to get be able to rip the audio properly.
If you don't have autorun enabled, you will not have a problem with these CD's. All the copy-protection is is a program that runs that authorizes your computer to play the DRMed WMA's included on the CD. If you don't let the DRM program run, you can open up CDEX (or whatever ripping program you use)and rip away. I've done it with the newest Weezer disc, DMB, and Velvet Revolver. The first time I bought one of those albums, I was fully prepared to take the CD back in protest if I couldn't rip the CD.
Sony/BMG's copy protection doesn't work on a Mac, but you can play the disc and rip to mp3 or AAC just like any other disc.
I found this while using a couple of CDs I bought in Europe where Sony has been copy protecting CDs from some time now. The discs would play on my WIndows PC in the office, but I could rip them into iTunes.
Took the CDs home and put them in my iMac, and the played, not problem, and I ripped my usual high-quality VBR mp3 files for my iPod.
Moral of this story . . . just one more reason to buy a Mac! Go get yours today . . . you won't regret it! ;-)
I've not come across a protected CD that I can't rip on my Mac. Occasionally they'll chunter about a bit as there's something not quite right about them but eventually they'll settle down and rip/play just fine.
And then there's always Audio Hijack anyway from the digital output on my CD player to the Mac. Never had to use it for that purpose but it works for really old tapes and vinyl.
I don't know why BMG even bother.
The thing is, they should be worrying about p2p programs, not "schoolyard piracy". Once the music is on p2p, the DRM has been ripped out of it. All DRM does is make more trouble for people who actually bought the CD. The recording industry is having trouble convincing people to buy CDs when everything is already "free" on p2p. It is not helping that they are just making it harder for people who actually bought the album. And it doesn't just affect people who are trying to pirate the album, either.
When will these people realize that DRM doesn't work? Instead of trying to control its customers by using DRM, they should make the customers want to buy the product.
Absolutely amazing, taking into account Sony's long list of total disregards for regular music/movie lovers.
I've seen the same "why does Sony bother" comment from a few people.
Why? I don't think they are concerned about those of us that know how to get around these DRM limitations. It's the general consumer that has an MP3 player (iPod or another one) that DOESN'T keep up on the latest steps that will keep them using these DRM protected CDs.
They are the consumers that have Autorun enabled (and most likely, doesn't know how to turn it off). They are the consumers that won't care about the twice ripping solution to get digital files to their MP3 player (even though the steps seem rather complicated - even for some of us that know how to do these work arounds).
If you ask me, I think Sony is using DRM on the wrong people. But then again, if they know that the rest of us will figure out how to break their schemes, maybe they are smart to target the average Windows user.
Of course, in the end, they are simply placing guilt before innocence. And pissing off their average customers in the process.
So it's now easier to download the CD than it is to buy it and rip it? Iiiiiinteresting.
The first poster had it right. What is so hard about pressing shift before putting in a CD. I bought The Foo Fighters and had it ripped too .ogg as soon as it was out of the wrapper. Removal of wrapper to finished rip 3 minutes.
This morning I received a promo of the new Super Furry Animals CD, due out in August on Sony/BMG. It's copy protected to the degree that if I put it in any computer in my office, it appears to have no readable files. On a PC it crashes iTunes and Windows Explorer, and on a Mac I get a message along the lines of "This disc has no files or folders readable by OS X". It doesn't even mount on the desktop.
This is likely to be a precaution to avoid pre-release copies finding their way onto p2p networks, and final release versions will probably be fine.
However, if Sony are determined to protect their assets this is a far more effective way of stopping people ripping their CDs. Anyone know of a possible workaround, aside from hooking up a CD player to the computer?
http://flickr.com/photos/everdred/21037581/
Engadget - you guys have the best contextual RSS ads. Evar. =)
I got the same Super Furry Animals cd and am having the same problems as gorky5. Does anybody have the e-mail address where you can supposedly get the "back door" information from Sony/BMG? I've looked everywhere and can not find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I wasn't too bothered about copy protection until today (because it hasn't really affected me until today). I'm a simple Windows computer user (simple is relative) and I LOVE music and buy a LOT of it. We put all of our music (several thousand CD's and always growing) onto two servers in our home (one is just backups of all music, pictures, and important data files) and listen to them on our computers and pipe it to our stereos (it's a big house!). NOW, I've bought a CD (Charlotte Martin) with the MediaMaxx software on it and, even though I've gotten around the software ripping issue (thanks to the link posted by pointfour), it won't play correctly in two of my five stereo's CD/DVD players! It has hiss and stutter of a sort on it (but not the same as when you put it into your computer). I have no idea why. I put in different CD's and they're fine. The MP3's I ripped and put on a CD play great. It's just very irksome that they've now got copy protection that doesn't apparently work with every CD player and that must be okay with them. How do I get my money back if I buy a CD (which, of course, I've opened at this point) that won't play in my player? I'm willing to bet they'll just say "sorry, we don't take returns... would you like another copy?"
So, BMG today has turned me into an outlaw/scofflaw (in their eyes) because I have to break their copy protection just so I can listen to music on MY terms. Will I stop buying music? No. If they were to break into my house and tear it up, they'd find every single CD for all of my music with the exception of what I have legally downloaded AND paid for and paid for and paid for...but I have that documentation too.
How long before they turn this into a pay per use game? You can only listen to a track ten times and then it's no longer playable. I'm sure they'd love that.
"Macs are great, go get yours today!"
Seriously, go spend $3,000 to get a 2.7 ghz processor with 512 megs! It will have a proprietary cd-rom, that can only be ejected by programs - don't you dare eject it manually or your system will freeze.
I, on the other hand, have a $500 system. It has a 3.2 ghz processor, 1.5 GIGS of ram, 200 gigs of hd space, and a 128 meg video card. Oh, and a cd/dvd burner.
I've never had a virus in other 15+ years of computing and 10+ years of being "online". I have had trojans from downloading twice - so have my macintosh friend! Adware? None for me.. Spywayre? None for me.. maybe Windows users get more of that crap because there are a billion more than apple users. Quite a large market...
And what the hell is with holding Option when adding printers to find a shared windows printer? Why wouldn't they tell you this somewhere or add that feature automatically? SMB? Half-ass protocol.
I own a mac and a pc, the mac is great for some things and the pc is great for others.. but to be honest the PC is my "base". Since my mac costs 500+ dollars to repair simple things and has freeware few and far between, I'll continue to fund my much cheaper, cross compatible, game friendly, crash-less Linus/Windows machine.
charlie@kastaris.com
i think its all rediculas cause eather way its not that hard to record the cd, just put it in my cd player and hook it into line in and record in cool edit or something, it doesnt even have to be that hard i can just play the music on my computer and hit record in cool edit, and it will record it, sure its not as fast but makes me happy, i think the exicutioners cd was like this, or the new beastie boys one of them 2
I think it is stupid to put the cd protection on a cd. I do not own a cd player but I like having hard copies of my music, so instead of downloading everything for free I buy the cd's. Now I cannot rip the cd onto my mp3 player. I bought them and I cannot listen to them. That pisses me off. And I still have not found a way to break the DMR. This does not protect them at all. Because if I cannot rip my cd onto my computer to put it into my mp3 player I am not going to buy cd's I’ll just download them. Three cd's that I just bought 2 days ago and cannot listen to are by. The Killers, Dashboard Confessional, and Dave Matthews Band. I think it would be much easer for me to just get a song list and download the whole cd. So to music companies like BMG you are only screwing yourselves over because if I cannot put my listen to my cd's I will not buy them.