FairUse4WM v1.3 Fix 2 promises Vista, Zune DRM stripping

Oh, IT'S ON. After months of eager anticipation, it looks like either Viodentia has finally come out of hiding, or s/he's passed the torch on to another (Doom9 forum user Divine Tao?) -- but either way it looks like MS DRM IBX components up to version 11.0.6000.6324 are good to go with the latest version of FairUse4WM, v1.3 Fix 2 (read: this is the update we know you've all been waiting for). We haven't yet confirmed ourselves, but feel free to tell us whether you got a sweet taste of DRM freedom without having to continue using XP and Windows Media Player 10 with that subscription music service.

[Thanks, Abdul and Adam]

[scottwh @ Jul 15th 2007 5:18AM]

Yeah son! It works. For some reason this is making me a little too happy.

[brian2090 @ Jul 15th 2007 12:45PM]

Okay, scottwh... since you were high on the list of comments, I'll ask what I have not found by reading the other comments. I'm concluding that this is a great way to turn off the licensing issues with songs that you've purchased (using Windows Media based DRM) by identifying the keys behind the Digital Rights Management scheme. My question is, how does knowing the keys help me change a DRM file into a DRM-fair-use file?

[scottwh @ Jul 15th 2007 1:24PM]

dude if your wondering about the technology and methods behind the program I can't help you. There is a fairly large (60 page) thread over at the Doom9 forums discussing the previous version; if you wanted to root through that I'm sure you could find some sort of answer.

but if your wondering about the function of the program, it strips all of the DRM for you, automatically. It doesn't just give you the keys, it then proceeds to take specified files and break the DRM on them. So if you don't care about the technical stuff, it works very well.

[brian2090 @ Jul 16th 2007 5:54AM]

Thanks, that is just the answer I was looking for.

[Adam @ Jul 15th 2007 5:16AM]

I sent this in yesterday and you guys ignored me :(

If you notice, Divine Tao is an acronym for.... you got it!

[Carlos @ Jul 15th 2007 5:21AM]

anagram*

[Ryan Block @ Jul 15th 2007 12:06PM]

I think Abdul sent it in first -- added a thanks, though!

[Isaac Levy @ Jul 15th 2007 2:19PM]

What's it an anagram for?

Deviation?
Anti-Video?

[Frederik @ Jul 15th 2007 4:12PM]

Divine Tao is an anagram for Viodentia.

[E71 @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:13PM]

Vista Ultimate 64 here, no worky worky. Then again I'm not surprised, nothing works with Vista especially 64bit version.

[wutang01 @ Jul 15th 2007 5:44AM]

It works! It works! w00t ... I'm using Vista Ultimate 64bit.

However, what does this mean:
Processing "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM\cache\Indiv01_64.key"
Caution! Reading XML file failed for 2 - The system cannot find the file specified.

Am I supposed to have this file?

Before that, it said:
Processing "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM\cache\Indiv01.key"
Version: 11.0.6000.6324 ...

[Paul Bennett @ Jul 15th 2007 5:57AM]

I would ask that over in the Doom9 forum rather than here. Didn't see this error on vista 32bit however.

[eriley @ Jul 15th 2007 5:45AM]

Brilliant! Thanks a bunch

[Paul Bennett @ Jul 15th 2007 5:52AM]

Verified - works for me (Vista 32bit). It does indeed appear to be "ON".

mirakagi ... any meaning to the name?

[gojeda @ Jul 15th 2007 6:00AM]

Doesn't work reliably it seems:

Mirakagi works well enough:
Mirakagi starts, code version 0.9
Found 4 keys in keyring.
-----------------
Processing "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DRM\cache\Indiv03.key"
Version: 11.0.6000.6324 ...
XML - Cert: 84 bytes, Key Storage: 1694 bytes.
DLL 1000/8da32 @ ac01000 && 8f000/1bac9 @ ac8f000
Large 1341 Small 0 Special 22,0 (0,220)
S: 3 T:3 X:51
AES: bb 05 f9 11 e4 eb 8d 96 23 af 5b 17 38 c9 58 8f
Decoding secondary keys
Please wait for 19587 attempts.
It is finished.

But when I proceed to strip the DRM, I get errors that all say the following:
D:\temp\WMA with DRM\Fine Young Cannibals - Johnny Come Home.wma does not appear to be licensed to you.

Well, I am licensed to play the file, as it plays just fine with the music service player I used to download it with (Yahoo! Music).

Good try though, I don't think you are too far from hitting the jackpot.

[Paul Bennett @ Jul 15th 2007 6:33AM]

no such issues with Napster :)

[gojeda @ Jul 15th 2007 9:06AM]

Got it working.

Apparently, if you keep the wma files, but reinstall your machine, Yahoo! Player needs to "re-acquaint" itself with each and every song. Essentially, you just have to play the first couple of seconds of each track.

So, moral of the story: don't re-install the OS until you really have to.

[brett.chandler @ Jul 16th 2007 2:17AM]

Not sure what caused your particular issue, but it worked swimmingly for my Y! Unlimited music that I downloaded via Yahoo! Music Jukebox.

Vista 32-bit, BTW. VERY nice work, Divine Tao!

[Evan @ Jul 17th 2007 3:59AM]

Works with Ruckus as well. Ruckus is a free music download service for college students. All you need is a .edu email address to sign up and they have a good selection of songs. Universities and advertisements subsidize the site and it is all completely legal. Until I use the program, I suppose... maybe not.

[Adam @ Jul 15th 2007 6:20AM]

For license issues, you have to make sure it will play in Windows Media Player (it will download the license...)

[gojeda @ Jul 15th 2007 6:25AM]

It will play in WMP if Yahoo! Music player is open in the background.

[mirc @ Jul 15th 2007 7:15AM]

Gees guys... Just f%$$% use Ubuntu or Fedora. Get rid of this DRM crap already.

[Chris @ Jul 15th 2007 7:20AM]

mirc what are you an idiot? What does DRM have to do with windows? How in gods name would switching from windows to linux stop stores like napster and zunemarketplace and itunes from using drm?

Oh wait i get it your saying just go on limewire and download them illegally....that might work but isnt exactly ethical... but from your statement it doesnt sould like you care....

go be a 13 year old somewhere else.

[mirc @ Jul 15th 2007 10:49AM]

Well actually I'm not a 13 year old :). I was thinking more on the lines of "if you cannot play your discs on your pc (linux/apple and other non drm based) it has to be the sellers fault right?". There in goddamn great Americas you can sue almost anybody for anything, right. Sue them (the company that sold you that CD/DVD/Blue-Ray or whateva') for this :).
OK. Just joking. Thought that the article was just another one about Vista crippling audio outputs. My bad.
Anyway this is really funny. It seems that you can't make mistakes anymore these days... kaboom, somebody calls you an idiot, moron, intellectually challenged. Gee... I'd really like to expand on the "13 year old" theme but it'd be just a waste of time. Education is poor these days.

[Paul @ Jul 15th 2007 10:09PM]

@mirc

Wow, I could just tell how you oozed intelligence in your rebuttal.

http://www.google.com/search?q=define+irony

[LordLaLa @ Jul 15th 2007 8:29AM]

either that, or he just wants all us windows users to be without our deliciously warm drivers... mmm drivers
*dangles drivers over linutards head

who wants drivers.... sweet delicious drivers

nd they're written by the company who made my hardware, so i have tech support

oooh wouldnt want any of this now would you

[Urza @ Jul 15th 2007 11:31AM]

Ya know what's funny about that statement? My wifi card drivers, from the manufacturer's website, work better on Linux and Windoze. On Windoze my net access drops every hour or so and I have to do all kinds of weird shit to get it working again. On Linux I've never had a single problem. Get better signal strength too somehow.

[Robin.C @ Jul 15th 2007 12:17PM]

Last time I checked, Linux can use Windows drivers.

Enjoy your bloatware, WGA, and monsterous system requirements.

[tekdroid @ Jul 15th 2007 8:51AM]

so let me get this straight:

Users support DRM in the marketplace buy agreeing to purchase DRM-infested content from various sources despite alternatives. Basically saying "yes please, we love this DRM stuff".

These same users talk about killing DRM, the very DRM they sustain with their money.

Makes sense.

[Steve @ Jul 15th 2007 9:16AM]

No, tekdroid. They are PAYING for ownership of a good or service, then using a third party program to enforce the spirit of that ownership. The operative word being "paying". Unless your "alternative" is buying CDs, stop acting like you're some type of freedom fighter just because you know how to use bittorrent.

On a similar note... I'm assuming that, at least as far the "FairUse" team goes, this is limited to purchased tracks -- not rented ones?

[tekdroid @ Jul 15th 2007 12:00PM]

Unless your "alternative" is buying CDs, stop acting like you're some type of freedom fighter just because you know how to use bittorrent.
------------
The alternative is indeed buying CDs and independent online content free from DRM. I don't act like a freedom fighter, I simply think it's 100% absurd to "break" what the market helps perpetuate with its own funds and claim some "vicoty".

Totally avoiding the product/ service is breaking it - so it doesn't even get a chance to breathe in the market.

[J L @ Jul 15th 2007 9:23AM]

DRM has never hurt me for some reason. I use what MS gives me to listen to my music (Zune and/or media player) and I've never had a problem...

[Nicholas FitzRoy-Dale @ Jul 15th 2007 9:56AM]

I almost never gets me either, since I use iTMS and an iPod. But when you venture out of the closed system and try to do something perfectly reasonable but a little different, the ridiculousness of it really hits you. For example, I would like to play my purchased songs on my Linux box at work. I like buying music online because it's convenient and supports the artist, but half the time I find myself torrenting the same album again!

[Josh @ Jul 16th 2007 12:05AM]

I have a Napster 2 Go subscription and it works fine with Vista and WMP 11. The problem is that even when you buy a song from Napster it doesn't strip the DRM. So if you hard drive crashes and you lose a song then you have to re-download it from Napster. I'm sure other digital stores do the same thing (except with iTunes you can't even re-download them unless I'm mistaken).

Anyway the point is that most people still don't regularly back up their hard drives, and if you lose your music due to a hard drive crash then you have to re-download it. If the song is no longer available for download then you're hosed. It happened to me once and I lost over $100 in music.

Now the first thing that I do when I buy a song from ANY service is to burn it to CD and then rip it back to strip the DRM. And of course I back it up as well. But if I had a piece of software that would just strip the DRM off the music that I purchase then it would save me a whole lot of CDs and a whole lot of burning and ripping...

I think I'll have to check this out.

[Joe @ Jul 20th 2007 9:35AM]

If you're seriously concerned with supporting artists a donation or going to a live show would be much more worth it, because musicians don't make SHIT by selling their music online.

[Steve @ Jul 15th 2007 9:49AM]

OK OK we all know it works now ixnay on the publicitay!

[Steve @ Jul 15th 2007 10:37AM]

Hey, hey! I was Steve before you were Steve.... add some numbers to that screen name.

[NeoK182 @ Jul 15th 2007 1:17PM]

i can verify that this works on XP PRO SP2 and Vista Ultimate 32 bit with ZUNE DRM. both on files you bought and files sent to you.

[Philip @ Jul 15th 2007 11:26AM]

Now I can play all of my legally purchased music on my Pioneer XM Inno!

[john @ Jul 15th 2007 11:41AM]

Joystiq, in the past you've always talked about this type of software as a tool for users that want to "backup" their music. You would never suggest stealing, no, not you, Joystiq. But you've made it too obvious with this statement that you think it's fine for users to steal. You can't interpret it any other way. Why? Because you're suggesting that users do this with subscription music. There is no backup argument with subscription music, because you can redownload music as often as you like, and it's not meant to be permanent anyway. So the backup argument is bogus. The bottom line is you think users should go download unlimited music through these subscriptions just long enough to rip the DRM and have the music for free. And that's exactly what people will do. Oh, sure, 1 out of 10 might actually only use something like this for backup (my stat, pulled out of thin air), but the rest will take money from the artists and labels. Love them or not, love Windows or not, love iTunes or not, they have the right to sell their product however they want, with whatever DRM they want (short of rootkits). And users have the right not to buy it. Users should get over it if they don't like DRM. They can buy the CD... they'll have a backup and they can rip their music however they want!

Joystiq, you should stop the thinly veiled posts supporting the theft of music with tools like this.

John

[Christian Martin @ Jul 15th 2007 5:08PM]

Who?

[metal @ Jul 15th 2007 12:36PM]

I'm not sure I totally agree with your argument about the backing up.

What if I want to listen to music through my car audio system and I want to burn a cd? I could see some legitimate uses for this.

[john @ Jul 15th 2007 12:42PM]

It's simple... if you want to play it through your car and/or burn a CD, you can't use Zune Marketplace subscription services. You can buy the CD yourself or purchase tracks that allow CD burning. Again, MS has the right to decide how you can use the tracks, and you have the right to not buy their product. You don't have the right to violate their terms and agreements because you don't like them. Look, I get aggravated with a lot of situations as well where I can't use my media exactly the way I want to. But I get aggravated with a lot of retail/online store policies (returns, restocking feeds, etc). Does that mean I can walk into my BestBuy and take a product because I don't like how they're selling it? No. The same thing applies with online music. Just because there isn't a tangible, physical product doesn't change things.

John

[Jimbo @ Jul 15th 2007 1:26PM]

No offense, but having to pay for the same music so that you can play it at different locations is just plain dumb.

Consumers don't care about what Microsoft thinks, they paid, so they play.

[dxprog @ Jul 15th 2007 1:53PM]

I get the feeling he works for the RIAA or some record company.

[Patrick @ Jul 15th 2007 2:15PM]

Umm, why are you referring to Engadget as Joystiq?

[john @ Jul 15th 2007 4:22PM]

I do independent technology consulting. I don't work for any of the entities, and have no hidden agenda. I just get a little sick and tired of sites like Joystiq (and engadget - they're the same company with different blog focuses) making weak cases for products that are primarily used for pirating. I know, I know... all of you are only using the software for backup and fair rights, just like everyone in prison is innocent. For the following statements:

"No offense, but having to pay for the same music so that you can play it at different locations is just plain dumb.

Consumers don't care about what Microsoft thinks, they paid, so they play"

For the first point, you can buy a CD and do whatever you want with it. For the second point, if you don't care for Microsoft, don't buy their product. I love how everyone hates MS, and yet wants so badly to use their product, often beyond its intended means. If everyone hates MS and no one wants to buy their products, why are we even having a discussion about how to break their DRM? No MS purchase = no MS DRM.

I used to pirate software back in the days of floppy disks and attempts to use bad sectors to thwart copying (even back to Atari 8-bit computer days). I always used the excuse to myself that I couldn't afford; therefore, I wasn't hurting anyone. Now I know better. I'd like to see Weblogs be a better corporate citizen and show that they know better, too. They don't care for it when people start stores in other countries with their logo; they probably wouldn't like it if people started copying their articles onto their own sites. So they shouldn't flaunt products like this that use the thin veil of "fair use" to support media piracy.

John

[Josh @ Jul 16th 2007 12:11AM]

No MS purchase = no MS DRM
------

Not quite true. Napster and Realplayer Rhapsody both use the same DRM that Zune does. iTunes uses it's own DRM and they refuse to play ball with anyone else. iTunes also refuses to do a subscription service.

Also, I happen to be one of the people who doesn't pirate music. I pay for a Napster2Go subscription and I put it on my laptop (which doubles as my home stereo system) and my Cingular 8125. With an aux cable I can play my Cingular 8125 through my car stereo system so I'm set.

On the other hand, when I buy music I strip the DRM off of it by burning it to CD and ripping it back. I've had lots of license problems in the past with music that I've legitimately purchased, so that's why I got in the habit of doing that. So there really are legitimate uses for this program, and there are people who would use it legitimately.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who wouldn't use it legitimately as well. But those same people will just as easily get their music off of P2P file sharing or just by streaming iTunes from other people on their college campus and recording it using Audacity. This program really isn't going to change anything for those people.

[Sam Daniel @ Jul 15th 2007 5:13PM]

Urza I have the opposite problem that you do. For me Linux is great and Windzone blows. Why do you think this is the case?

[Revrant2394 @ Jul 15th 2007 1:50PM]

What a crapfest, these comments are pretty bad.

Anyhow, this is quite bold of them even now, Microsoft having shown that they do Not like it...though I do love being DRM free. *cuddless clean WMA*