Keep it crackin’!

September 13th, 2006

Last week, some dedicated hacker(s) released a nifty little Windows programme entitled FairUse4WM which users can employ to strip Windows Media’s constricting “copy protection” from purchased mp3 files so one can copy, backup, and sync those files as one wants without having to worry about losing one’s investment to the strictures of DRM. Weeeeellllll, guess what? Microsoft hopped right to it and within three days issued a speedy patch to address this so-called “security vulnerability”.

Of course, how can a DRM crack be considered a “vulnerability”? Simply put: it can’t. Security guru and all-around Smart Fella Bruce Schneier in the above-linked article on Wired.com puts it bluntly:

[T]his isn’t a “vulnerability” in the normal sense of the word: digital rights management is not a feature that users want. Being able to remove copy protection is a good thing for some users, and completely irrelevant for everyone else….

But to Microsoft, this vulnerability is a big deal. It affects the company’s relationship with major record labels. It affects the company’s product offerings. It affects the company’s bottom line. Fixing this “vulnerability” is in the company’s best interest; never mind the customer. [Emphasis added]

Never mind that the code for WindowsXP and, lord knows, Internet Explorer 6 coughs up a whole new batch of legitimate security vulnerabilities every other day. Never mind that it took Microsoft three tries to (hopefully) patch a MAJOR IE flaw. Those problems don’t affect Microsoft itself, they affect users of Microsoft’s products - like me. Cracking Redmond’s DRM does no harm to users - in fact, as Schneier notes, it is a benefit to some and, at worst, completely unimportant to others. Cracking the DRM cracks Microsoft’s contracts with the Major Record Labels - and ohhhhh, no, we can’t have that! If everyday users find their computers infested with rapidly-proliferating spyware and Agent-Smith-like trojan programmes, their problems don’t matter a lick compared to those of the Major Labels, whose DRM strangehold on their property’s “rights” has now been invalidated!

But I don’t think it should be any surprise that the same industrious crew of faceless “consumer advocates” who produced the first FairUse4WM quickly responded with am upgraded version that gets around Microsoft’s unbelievably-important security patch. I haven’t followed up on the current state of MS’s DRM/anti-DRM Cold War, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more iterations of the crack/patch/re-crack cycle have already passed.

Of course, the exact same thing has begun with Apple Computers, as well. The Hymn Project has been working on DRM-strippers to remove Apple’s oxymoronically-named FairPlay DRM from tracks bought through the iTunes Music Store, and just last week MyFairTunes also appeared as an aid to users. Of course, with Tuesday’s much-ballyhooed but underwhelming upgrade of iTunes to version 7, Apple upgraded their FairPlay DRM as well. About eight hours later, updated versions of QTFairUse and HYMN appeared to remove Apple’s newly-upgraded FairPlay.

This should be a clear indication to corporate users of DRM schemes that they don’t frickin’ work. Users don’t want them - else, why would there be so many programmes out there designed to crack and remove the DRM? Doesn’t the example of eMusic and other independent, DRM-free online music stores prove that DRM is a useless concept and no true guarantee of protecting sales? In fact, eMusic, who currently holds about 11% of the US market for online music sales, just opened a European division. Obviously they’re doing something right!

Keep it up, crackers. As long as there will be DRM, there will be people like you stepping to the plate to remove it. But I still maintain that the smartest economic move for a consumer to make is to just not bother buying anything with DRM on it in the first place. There are plenty of online music outlets that don’t use it, and they are very easy to find.

By Derek C. F. Pegritz on September 13th, 2006 | Scategory: Computer Nerdery |