HiFi Blog: digital audio goodness

Whoever made this, “mad propz” as they say. FairUse4WM is a tool that strips WindowsMedia DRM 10 and 11 (not DRM 9)—it surfaced first on Engadget. This is the kind of protection that the tracks you listen through subscription services (Rhapsody, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, Napster, etc.) come with. The app looks easy to use and it doesn’t work in real-time (like, say, myTunes)—it can strip DRM of tracks en masse. It doesn’t seem to work with DRM’d video files, though.

Think about it—with FairUse4WM you can pay a monthly subscription to one of those services, download as many tracks as you wish, and instead of letting them expire when the month ends, you can strip the DRM with this app and keep them. If you’re a real looter you’ll let the month pass and your subscription expire, but why not renew your membership and use it as a way to get new music. This way the labels are glad for taking your money, and you’re glad you’re enjoying your DRM-free tunes. (Peter Rojas has written an open letter to Microsoft along those lines.)

I assume some people at Rhapsody and Y!MU should be really mad right now

For the record, Microsoft tried to break the app’s functionality when they found out about it, but the FairUse4WM guys got back a mere 5 days later with an updated version. This’ll be interesting to watch (and we’re obviously rooting for the Fair Use camp.)