drm
Work
RIAA Says DRM Is Dead
9:00PM Adam Pash | The RIAA have finally declared DRM dead for music, according to all-things-BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak. You won’t see us arguing, having avoided DRMed music like the plague ever since it started gaining ground in the post-Napster 2.0 world, but the steady decline of digital rights management in recent months has been a welcome move all around. More »
Work
Burn Your Purchased ITunes Movie To A DVD
8:00AM Adam Pash | Unless you’ve got an Apple TV or computer next to your TV, your purchased iTunes movies are limited to your monitor. Wired details how to burn those movies to a DVD for the bigscreen experience. More »
Fix
11:00AM Angus Kidman | Microsoft’s limited success with the Windows Media format for selling music (and movies) has largely been due to its willingness to add uber-annoying DRM to keep copyright holders happy. So it’s amusing to see the Big M officially recommending that customers who have used those services work their way around them. Here’s an extract from an email which Microsoft has sent to subscribers of its soon-to-be-defunct UK music store (I once purchased a single song from it for research purposes and hence ended up on the mailing list).
We recommend that you back up any previously downloaded tracks to audio CD using Windows Media Player. This will protect your music collection for future listening.
This approach isn’t new to anyone who has sought to remove DRM from Windows Media files (or from iTunes, for that matter), but it’s nice to see it given the company seal of approval. More »
Microsoft Endorses Burning Music To CD To Kill DRM
11:00AM Angus Kidman | Microsoft’s limited success with the Windows Media format for selling music (and movies) has largely been due to its willingness to add uber-annoying DRM to keep copyright holders happy. So it’s amusing to see the Big M officially recommending that customers who have used those services work their way around them. Here’s an extract from an email which Microsoft has sent to subscribers of its soon-to-be-defunct UK music store (I once purchased a single song from it for research purposes and hence ended up on the mailing list).
We recommend that you back up any previously downloaded tracks to audio CD using Windows Media Player. This will protect your music collection for future listening.
This approach isn’t new to anyone who has sought to remove DRM from Windows Media files (or from iTunes, for that matter), but it’s nice to see it given the company seal of approval. More »
Communicate
DRM-Free iTunes Tracks Still Have User IDs Embedded
12:30AM Kevin Purdy | Just because Apple and Big Music dropped the DRM doesn’t mean they want you trading your iTunes purchases. CNET notes that buyers’ registered email addresses are embedded in every file, and so (somewhat) trace-able. [via Slashdot] More »
Money
2:07PM Angus Kidman | The news that Apple will offer DRM-free tracks and let you convert existing protected music is pretty welcome, but as Nick over at Gizmodo points out, it won’t come cheap. Converting existing tracks will cost 50 cents a pop, videos will be $1, and whole albums will cost 30% of the original purchase price. All that sound nastily excessive to us for stuff you’ve already paid for (and a good reason to break out the CD burner for some cost-free conversion instead). As Nick notes, it’s also important to check any future purchases to ensure you don’t actually purchase a DRM-hindered track; if that looks like the only option, hanging out until April, when a bunch more tracks will be freed up, seems sensible.
More »
Removing DRM From iTunes Tracks Won’t Come Cheap
2:07PM Angus Kidman | The news that Apple will offer DRM-free tracks and let you convert existing protected music is pretty welcome, but as Nick over at Gizmodo points out, it won’t come cheap. Converting existing tracks will cost 50 cents a pop, videos will be $1, and whole albums will cost 30% of the original purchase price. All that sound nastily excessive to us for stuff you’ve already paid for (and a good reason to break out the CD burner for some cost-free conversion instead). As Nick notes, it’s also important to check any future purchases to ensure you don’t actually purchase a DRM-hindered track; if that looks like the only option, hanging out until April, when a bunch more tracks will be freed up, seems sensible.
More »
Organise
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Looking for an ebook read but don’t fancy messing with the complicated authentication schemes that often get in the way? New site eBooks Just Published focuses on newly-published titles that don’t use any form of digital rights management (DRM), making it much easier to read them on a wide variety of devices. Perhaps surprisingly, there’s more fiction than non-fiction on offer. There’s also a useful subcategory of entirely free titles if you’re looking to save a few dollars.
eBooks Just Published
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eBooks Just Published Finds DRM-Free Reading Options
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Looking for an ebook read but don’t fancy messing with the complicated authentication schemes that often get in the way? New site eBooks Just Published focuses on newly-published titles that don’t use any form of digital rights management (DRM), making it much easier to read them on a wide variety of devices. Perhaps surprisingly, there’s more fiction than non-fiction on offer. There’s also a useful subcategory of entirely free titles if you’re looking to save a few dollars.
eBooks Just Published
More »
Fix
DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Removes iTunes DRM With Virtual CD Burner
12:00AM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Free provides a clever work-around to stripping audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Music Store—and, theoretically, other protected, purchased tracks—of their DRM. The free application installs a virtual CD burner on your Windows system, so your only job is to create a playlist, hit “Burn Disc,” and choose the “TurnsDrive” when prompted. If the app is running in your system tray, it catches the “burning,” and works in the background to split the virtual disc back into unprotected MP3s. Album art, tags, and other metadata are all preserved, and while the burning process took unusually long for one batch of protected MP3s, it delivered on the restriction-free goods. You’ll have to have authorised access to play and burn the tracks you want to unlock, but since iTunes allows unlimited CD burns (if you change the playlist just a bit), you’re pretty much in the clear. DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Free is a free download for Windows systems only; a paid version adds OGG and other formats and a few other options. DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Free [via FreewareGenius.com] More »
Fix
Rescue My Music From Windows Media Player WMA To MP3?
7:30AM Lifehacker US Edition | Dear Lifehacker, Windows Media Player hijacked my MP3 files and converted them all to WMA. I want to change them back easily in one sweep—but am not the most savvy user. Help? Signed, Gimme My Beats Back Original photo by Mark Kobayashi-Hillary More »
Communicate
3:32PM Angus Kidman | Telstra’s BigPond Music arm has started selling music in unprotected MP3 format, making it a much more appealing rival to the iTunes store than when it was a Windows Media-only shop (which blocked any iPod users for starters). All four major labels have signed up for the store, and tracks are available encoded at 256Kbps or (in some cases) 320Kbps. Telstra is currently still selling WMA formats as well, but we’ll be surprised if this lasts too long. Pricing starts at $1.69 for individual tracks (BigPond ISP subscribers get a discount of 12% on individual tracks or 9% on albums, and don’t have downloads counted against their quota). (Thanks Shane G!) [BigPond Music]
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BigPond ditches DRM for MP3 format
3:32PM Angus Kidman | Telstra’s BigPond Music arm has started selling music in unprotected MP3 format, making it a much more appealing rival to the iTunes store than when it was a Windows Media-only shop (which blocked any iPod users for starters). All four major labels have signed up for the store, and tracks are available encoded at 256Kbps or (in some cases) 320Kbps. Telstra is currently still selling WMA formats as well, but we’ll be surprised if this lasts too long. Pricing starts at $1.69 for individual tracks (BigPond ISP subscribers get a discount of 12% on individual tracks or 9% on albums, and don’t have downloads counted against their quota). (Thanks Shane G!) [BigPond Music]
More » 
