Microsoft Digital Rights Manager 2005

[DeVry Student]

What a cute title for a thread.

Anyhow... Napster sucks.

My dad installed Napster on his computer downstairs a few months ago - and it costs $9.99 / monthly. I decided to purchase a song from it yesterday so I downloaded Prodigy - Spitfire, and I was expecting to be able to copy it to my music collection.

Much to my supprise, it was a .wma file (not a .mp3 file) that I downloaded. My car's MP3 CD player does not play .wma CDs. I decided to copy this to my USB drive and then take it upstairs to my computer. On my computer(s), I do NOT have Windows Media Player 7/8/9/10 installed (it was a pain in the but to remove it btw w/ all the files mirrored in the dllcache folder had to delete files twice to remove the malicious program)... and it did not play on my computer. I tried to burn the .wma to a CD in Nero 6 but Nero attempted to connect to the Internet and ended up downloading some sort of backdoor update to Digital Rights Management.

I ended up buying the song again on Napster and burning it straight to CD-R in Napster, then ripping the track to .wav using Nero 6 and than converting the .wav to a .mp3 with dBPowerAmp. It works now - but it was a pain in the rear to get this far. I hate to say it this way - but can't someone sue Napster for violating Fair Use rights?

Additionally, is there any way to uninstall this backdoor DRM update that was installed on my computer, or is it possible to add the DRMClien.DLL to my firewall and deny internet rights to it? Or, should I revert to the ghost image I did the week before last?

 

[Dinkleberry]

How come you want to remove the program? I'm not flaming or anything, just curious.

 

[DeVry Student]

I don't know about you - but I just do not feel comfortable having a program connect to the Internet without my explicit permission. Thats why I installed a firewall in the first place. Windows Media Player is notorious for tracking usage and sending it to Microsoft (such as DVDs played, etc...) and I don't feel like this is any of Microsoft's business what I do on my computer. Call me paranoid, but I don't feel as secure if I have a program connecting to the internet sending information about how many files I have on my computer, what files are named... it only leaves the door open for someone to get your credit card information and other personal information (if stored)

 

[pomegranate]

DeVry, I'm sorry that Napster has been a pain in the arse for you but to be honest I don't have that much sympathy. Music download stores are renowned for being very limited in what you can do with your purchased music. You should have checked out the conditions before you started downloading - this is all pretty standard. You don't really have much ground to complain on.

 

[The Dark Elf]

I don't know about you - but I just do not feel comfortable having a program connect to the Internet without my explicit permission. Thats why I installed a firewall in the first place. Windows Media Player is notorious for tracking usage and sending it to Microsoft (such as DVDs played, etc...) and I don't feel like this is any of Microsoft's business what I do on my computer. Call me paranoid, but I don't feel as secure if I have a program connecting to the internet sending information about how many files I have on my computer, what files are named... it only leaves the door open for someone to get your credit card information and other personal information (if stored)

install a firewall that allows you to block specific software. eg sygate firewall pro. also shows you what programs are trying to send if/when they try. (and they can try, they don't get through)

 

[Fat Tony!]

Meh just use P2P software then .

 

[Direwolf]

I use iTunes. The downloads are all in ACC, which is protected, but I burn them all to CD anyway, and if I need them in MP3 I just rip the CD, which Itunes will do nicely.
And if you're that paranoid, you probably shouldn't be on the internet right now. A tremendous number of programs attempt to track usage statistics, and its just kinda become unavoidable.

 

[Zeus]

I also use iTunes. Napster sucks.

It's so easy to rip a cd in itunes and there are just so many options on iTunes.

 

[X|Rolando]

DRM = Digital Restrictions Management btw (or "handcuffware" )

And wouldn't you think that we would all be listening to ogg vorbis files instead of wmas?