Ever go out and by a CD that you've been dieing to hear for a long time, get it home, rip it onto your computer's hard drive and think to yourself that you actually own it?-á
Sadly, as of more recent times this seems to be becoming less and less true. In a mad flurry of attempts to stave off the money loss of main stream media brought on by the internet,-ásomeone came up with the genius idea to implement what is known as Digital Rights Management - DRM.-á
Essentially, DRM is a way of keeping people from copying and using illegitimate copies of music.-á
The idea is that, whenever you get legitimate copies of some media, you also acquire a license for said media. Whenever you go to use the media, your media player checks your computer for the required license key, and if it finds it, everything goes off without a hitch. -á
If, however, you take someone else's music that is "infected" by DRM, it won't play on your computer. It only plays on the computer for which the license was given. Removing DRM from media, which would allow you to play the media, is in breach of Digital Millennium Copyright Act, meaning that you can be criminalised for trying it.-á
I don't bring this whole DRM thing up because of Ruckus and it's lack-luster music files that can't be put on my iPod. No, I bring it up because a new version of Windows Media Player, WMP, is coming out.-á
WMP controls approximately 70 percent of the media player market. Much like Internet Explorer, it dominates simply by default. Every new Windows machine comes with WMP already installed. Also, with automatic updates turned on, all Windows machines automatically update to the newest version of WMP. -á
The next iteration of the player, WMP 11, has a few big changes as far as DRM go. It used to be that you could make personal backups of media for your own protection. You can do this with WMP 10, the current mass-released version.-á
It does give you the chance to restore your rights to the media if for some reason you lost them, though. For a limited number of times, you can connect over the internet to Microsoft and try to restore your rights to your legitimately purchased media. The limited number of times is a real kick in the pants, though. If I bought the music, I want to be able to restore the rights to my music as much as I want.
Now, those familiar with WMP 10 realize that there is an option to turn off protection of songs you rip from CDs. When running WMP for the first time, you are presented with the option to turn off copy protection, which when turned on applies DRM technology to all songs ripped from CDs regardless of the fact that you own the CD. When turned off, the music ripped can be copied, converted, moved, or whatever.-á
Windows Media Player doesn't worry about people paying to use it. It isn't bought by individual users. It comes with the system, and therefore doesn't have to cater to the end users.
We get shafted in order to make corporate music feel a bit more secure.
Who knows when the copy protection will no longer be an option
Jason Cordial is a sophomore telecommunications major and writes 'The Unsteady Hand' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Jason at bob.the.orange.monkey.warrior@gmail.com.
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