FairUse4WM - a WM/DRM removal program

[culprit]

Could someone please address the issue of removing DRM from DVR-MS files recorded thru Media Center? It is ridiculous that I cant view these videos on any other computer.

Thanks,
Rob

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Read the information at the following link:

http://www.deskshare.com/Resources/articles/dmc_DVRMS.aspx

[milOtis]

Hopefully someone can help me. I am using Windows MCE and am recording movies for later viewing. More and more lately the movies are protected and when I try to play them on other devices (ie - MiniPS, Other PC, work, on a trip, etc...) I get the message Restricted Content. This really urks me because I am in no way trying to pirate movies I just want to view the movies I have recorded.


yeah, in the media player there is an option to add protection. it is on by default, so you have to disable protection in your options. it will say "are you sure" like ms software ALWASY does, and you just say yes or ok

::: milOtis

[culprit]

I am using Media Center's guide and future programming capabilities to record the television shows/movies I want to see later. I dont think there are any options to disable protection; I think they are being DRM'd during the broadcast somehow.

I have also tried to convert the DVR-MS file directly to a WMV file according to the previous post without luck. The conversion program (Digital Media Converter) locks up after less than a minute into the conversion which is similar to other conversion methods I have tried. I think this has something to do with the DRM copy protection.

Again, this is extremely frustrating and I think I should be able to play my recording on any of my computers and portable devices. If anyone else could give me some more insight it would be greatly appreciated.

Rob

[mysekurity]

Does anyone know if updating Urge to get the Automix update kills FU4WM? In other words, does it update the IBX while it's messing with the rest of Urge and WMP?

I know that creating an account updates the IBX, but does adding your financial information alter anything?

Help would be greatly appreciated.

[Selayan]

I had windows media player 11 and my fairuse4wm stopped working. I then reverted to windows media player 10, and fairuse still does not work. It tells me the songs do not belong to me, when I have napster subscription with penn state.

[mysekurity]

I had windows media player 11 and my fairuse4wm stopped working. I then reverted to windows media player 10, and fairuse still does not work. It tells me the songs do not belong to me, when I have napster subscription with penn state.

Please do not use this program with subscription content (it's in the rules). Subscriptions are already fairly priced as they are. The purpose of this utility was to free purchased content (the kind that you buy for $.99 or $10 per album, etc.), and using it with a subscription furthers the belief that we are stealing. That being said, FU4WM doesn't depend on the version of Windows Media Player, but on the version of its DRM code.

You most likely have a version greater than .6 (see other posts in this forum), and hence it has stopped working for you. Or, there could be a few problem files that FairUse isn't converting (I have about two or three that it says are not licensed to me, but play fine in WMP). In the former case, there's not much you can do except pray for an update or try MilOtis' rollback (which has had varied results). If other files are converting (try using a sample, also found in other parts of this thread), you can contact Napster and see if they will allow you to re-download your purchased media.

Good luck!

[oddball]

I think I will just wait for 1.4 it all sounds like too much hassle. I don't have many wma files anyhow.

[mysekurity]

I think I will just wait for 1.4

One of the results of Microsoft's suit against Viodentia was that he sort-of went into hiding. We also haven't heard much from MonkeyBoy in a while, so the prospects aren't looking good of ever seeing a 1.4. It seems that the best solution to someone who has a newer version of the IBX is to use MilOtis' rollback, which, I understand, may not work anymore (as the individualization site apparently gives people the newest version). Too bad...

[jn441]

I've got DRM version: 11.0.5744.6324 and Indiv Version: 2.5.0.0 on my Vista machine, but FairUse4WM says

IBX components do not appear to be present and No "drmclien.dll" found in path

I've reindividualized a couple of times but no luck (strange that doing this didn't increase the DRM version). When I go to the DRM folder there is no indivbox.key.

Vista also stores the DRM folder in C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\DRM or C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Windows\DRM so maybe it is a path problem with Vista. (c:\Documents and Settings is a JUNCTION now)

I can't uninstall WMP11 because it's built into the OS...

in my DRM folder I have

10/08/2006 12:31 PM 20 blackbox.bin
10/04/2006 04:51 AM <DIR> Cache
01/30/2007 06:32 PM 266,240 drmstore.hds
11/15/2006 08:31 PM 4,348 DRMv1.bak
11/15/2006 08:31 PM 4,348 DRMv1.key
10/08/2006 12:31 PM 9,506 v3ks.bla
10/08/2006 12:31 PM 740 v3ks.sec

[WalterK]

maybe MS did a fix for Vista or fairuse was not built to operate correctly in Vista.
If you still have your XP install disc build a virtualmachine with VMware and use that to remove drm just don't update to wmp11 final no matter how many times it begs for it.
Instead installl wmp 11 beta 2 or 3 if your drm file demands you upgrade.

[torqueywrench]

i have version 1.3 and it worked fine in removing the protected content from my music, i upgraded the software in which i purchase music, and then i downloaded wmp 11 and it started giving me this message "suchsuchfile requires a different private key"

[StreamRipper]

I can't get the WMP downgrading instructions from the given file sharing server. Can anyone please upload to some new servers and share the link.

[NokiaFanatic]

As a first time poster - hello.

Well fortuantly - I stumbled across this site a while back and found this program which works beatuifully! I download music from various places now on the web from 2 differnt machines. Unfortunatly after using the program on one PC for a while - then decided to see if Windows had updates for me. I di not check here first for all the problems with WM11. Now one mchine is out of commision for the downloads. I do hope that 1.4 will come - but like 1 has said, we may not hear from the writer for a while. Which is sad that companies will allow us to pay for music, but only hold us to listening on that 1 PC or a specific prtable player. I for one have a PC, but use an iPod, but download wma's. Its sad that a monopoloy has occured with Microsoft as well with Apple. The music industry should be the ones to step up and let consumers of their purchased product enjoy the music they legally purchased and downloaded on any player they so choose. If they are worried that one person would download it and then share it with others for free, its the same worry as when 1 purchases a CD and makes copies for others as well.

Anyway. Great program!!!

[Selayan]

Its not like I didn't pay for napster in order to download the songs, its part of my technology fee that I pay here every semester which totals to about $100 including everything else. The only reason I like to use Fairuse is that I can't get any of my songs from napter on to my mp3 player. Also, I like having my songs in mp3 style. Ill look for that rollback technique but I dont have time to mess with it now. I guess I have to wait for a new version if there will be one. I mean after my years at college are done, my napster subscription will not work anymore, so then I won't be able to continue to hear those songs, let alone keep them.

[blutach]

That's the point - they are not yours. Please do not clog up this thread with your specific legal issues.

Regards

[Selayan]

Well now I tried fairuse4wm and I got this message:


Extraction in progress on "Indiv002.key" 11.0.5497.6285 -- Please wait.
Phase 0 : Blocks: 1331 Large 6 Small, Errors: 0,0 Candidates: 5,3,2
AES KEY: a9 af c8 15 ae 6b 75 f2 7b 7a 6e d7 57 ea 02 02
Testing 1538 possibilities for primary private key.
Completed. Primary and 3 secondary ECC keys recovered (0 bogus).

This is with windows media player 10. And I'm not doing this with all my music, i myself bought some songs that were not available with the subscription. And these are the ones I want to put on my mp3 player...only about 20 songs cuz the rest of my library was deleted when I formated my HD.

[sonicbox]

Selayan, save yourself some grief... if it's only 20 tracks just burn it to Audio CD and rip to back to unprotected MP3. For that, I can't see much advantage to using "fairuse4wm" since your goal is to convert it to MP3 anyway.

By the way: Napster protected subscription stuff does work on many mp3 players from Creative Labs, Sandisk, iRiver, etc.

[Selayan]

I guess I'll do that for now...but I plan on buying more tracks that I cant get at other places so my library will soon be over 100 some songs. I guess Ill just buy a cd-rw and do wat you suggested until the new fairuse comes out.

[tdudetyler]

I need to remove DRM from my music. And whats the latest fairuse4wm? where can i get it from?

SPECS: Windows Media Player 11 Build 11.0.6000.6324
Windows Vista Ultimate Build 6000
URGE Music Service

[mysekurity]

Selayan: burning drm'd tracks to a cd and ripping them is not nearly as easy as it sounds. WMP has a built-in mechanism to prevent just that, but I recommend you use Audacity to unencrypt your tracks (link (http://www.zuneboards.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,1302.0)). They will be of a lower quality, but they shouldn't be too much lower, as it will be recording from your speaker output (another, more expensive/complicated [yet easier] method is to use TuneByte). Good luck.

sonicbox: The DRM used by Napster works only with PlaysForSure compatible players (what this tool is intended to remove). I personally use Urge, and there are two options: one that allows you to take the content with you on a portable player (for $15 a month) and the other which doesn't ($10 a month). Please remember though that this software is intended only for use on purchased media.

tdudetyler: The latest FU4WM is the version 1.3 fix, which is not compatible with your version of Windows Media Player (and it seems that there are issues with MilOtis' rollback on Vista). Sorry, I guess you're SOL. In any event, most, if not all, of the sites that offered FU4WM for download have been taken down. Sorry...

[tdudetyler]

Selayan: burning drm'd tracks to a cd and ripping them is not nearly as easy as it sounds. WMP has a built-in mechanism to prevent just that, but I recommend you use Audacity to unencrypt your tracks (link (http://www.zuneboards.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,1302.0)). They will be of a lower quality, but they shouldn't be too much lower, as it will be recording from your speaker output (another, more expensive/complicated [yet easier] method is to use TuneByte). Good luck.

sonicbox: The DRM used by Napster works only with PlaysForSure compatible players (what this tool is intended to remove). I personally use Urge, and there are two options: one that allows you to take the content with you on a portable player (for $15 a month) and the other which doesn't ($10 a month). Please remember though that this software is intended only for use on purchased media.

tdudetyler: The latest FU4WM is the version 1.3 fix, which is not compatible with your version of Windows Media Player (and it seems that there are issues with MilOtis' rollback on Vista). Sorry, I guess you're SOL. In any event, most, if not all, of the sites that offered FU4WM for download have been taken down. Sorry...

whens the next one that will be compatible coming out?

[torqueywrench]

can someone post a link for v1.3 and the 1.3fix, cause i uninstalled wmp 11 and installed back to 10...thnx

[blutach]

@torquewrencg - please use search; this board has a powerful search function, use it.

@tdudetytler - your crystal ball is as good as anyone elses's. This is unanswerable except by the author.

Regards

[culprit]

Could someone please address the issue of removing DRM from DVR-MS files recorded thru Media Center? It is ridiculous that I cant view these videos on any other computer.

Thanks,
Rob

[blutach]

@culprit - please do not make such requests. What people offer is there. If an author has invited feature requests well and good. But, this goes too far.

Asking for help on how to do something is fine. Asking someone (anyone) to somehow address a problem of yours is not.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121780

Regards

[TheGreatDave]

Hi guys. I have a few protected files that I'm able to access on a couple of PCs. I can use FairUse on my girlfriends PC because she hasn't upgraded to WMP11, but I've got Vista so I'm kinda screwed. Is there any way to get key information from one PC to carry across to another with the FairUse program, so I can read the key on one PC and use it on another? It sounds unlikely, but I just thought I'd ask :)

[Selayan]

Thanks mysekurity, for the link to audacity. Im trying it now. My roommate says that if you can find the virtual B drive on your pc, you can make an image and place the songs on there then rip them..still havent the time for that.

[kobak8]

selayan read your private messages

[culprit]

@culprit - please do not make such requests. What people offer is there. If an author has invited feature requests well and good. But, this goes too far.

Asking for help on how to do something is fine. Asking someone (anyone) to somehow address a problem of yours is not.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121780

Regards
Blutach,
I apologize if my question is inappropriate; I just thought someone could tell me how to remove DRM from my DVR-MS files. Earlier someone had told me that you could convert the DVR-MS file to a WMV file first using Digital Media Converter but all the converters I tried including this one locked up after a few seconds; I would assume due to the DRM'ing. It just seemed that this might be possible already with the software and that someone could tell me how; your post was actually the first time I was told that the software could in no way do this.

Sincerely,
Rob

[TehMark]

eek, hasn't this proggy been broke since September?

[unknownsoldierX]

eek, hasn't this proggy been broke since September?

It is still possible to use it if you have WMP 10. I have all the updates installed (10.00.00.4040) and my Indivbox.key is version 11.0.0.4321.

[mysekurity]

Blutach,
I just thought someone could tell me how to remove DRM from my DVR-MS files.


Try dCut (http://www.cnet.com.au/downloads/0,239030384,10444364s,00.htm) (or look over David Caulton's [of the Zune team] previous posts (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Azuneguy.com+dvr). He frequently discusses ways to convert your dvr files.)

Good luck!

[resource]

Steve Jobs just announced that he wants all DRM to end
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

And Bill Gates announced a few months ago that consumers are better off the CDs because DRM is too cumbersome.

This means Viodentia needs to come back and make FairUse4WM 1.4. to fix all these new IBX numbers.

With this new Wal-Mart store we need a way to strip DRM off of purchased movies and move video around.

[blutach]

He'll come back in his own good time.

Please observe the instructions in this sticky (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121780).

Regards

[KoD]

What I see from that "Steve Jobs just announced that he wants all DRM to end" article is that Apple had enough of the big music producers imposing the rules and having the upper hand. Just like that article says, Apple has to provide those companies both the tech specs of their drm system and the guarantee that in case the system is compromised they will patch it up quickly or face immediate withdrawal of rights to sell that copyrighted material (and I also imagine they'd have to give "compensation" to the music companies as well).

So, the music sellers have the tech secrets that they can reveal to someone else and make Apple pay for "drm system breach" and also the right to withdraw their copyrighted material from sales if Apple does not comply. No wonder Apple doesn't like it. This is like selling yourself as a slave and keep your mouth shut hoping that your work as a slave for the rich master will earn you so much that it would compensate while your master can cut your head off anytime he pleases. But now that the music companies are facing troubles with low sales of CDs while iTunes on-line service is successful, Apple is planning on rebelling against their masters, or at least using this opportunity to negotiate better terms.

You can also see they approach this problem in a round-about manner: "Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free". In other words: "you are asking us to remove DRM ? (see the recent Norwegian court decision), then force those companies to remove DRM". A nice method to threaten the music companies, isn't it ? It's not us (Apple) that asks you this, the EU legislators will impose this on you !

Apple is not happy to give up on DRM one inch... they know that if this happens, their sales will go down as well. What they would probably like is for such music giants to intensify their lobbying efforts and make the EU adopt stricter copyright laws. Let the music companies and the EU law makers battle themselves, and with a bit of luck (lots of grease money), the law will bend.

Who thinks this is done out of sympathy for the poor end consumer is a naive chump.

[tillerman]

Hard to believe DRM will go away any time soon. In Googling for fu4wm 1.4, I've come across several "membership" sites that list it as downloadable. BS or not? No one here has mentioned any of them, so I'm assuming BS. Anyone know for sure?

[Danj]

Hard to believe DRM will go away any time soon. In Googling for fu4wm 1.4, I've come across several "membership" sites that list it as downloadable. BS or not? No one here has mentioned any of them, so I'm assuming BS. Anyone know for sure?

They are most likely full of spyware or viruses. I am sure that if there was a real 1.4 it would have been posted on here by someone or other. To be honest I wouldn't have thought anything is likely happen on the fu4wm development front until the lawsuit against viodentia runs out of steam, and with the US legal system being what it is that could be a long long time. Unless some other programmer is able to pick up from where vio left off of course.

[schil]

Has anyone used WMAConvert (http://www.wma-convert.com) ? They claim it will convert DRM protected WMA files to MP3.

[sonicbox]

schil, please stop the spam. Thanks.

[schil]

Chill dude. I am a huge FU fan and used 31fix until I killed it by updating my system. I have not used WMA Convert yet, just looking for alternatives.

[tastyratz]

so ive been using fairuse4wm on my napster files with fairuse commander so I can burn them to cd and listen to them on my wma cd player in my car. When I try to rip off the drm some of the files are giving errors saying that they dont appear to be licensed to me. I have wmp11 beta and they play in there fine. I AM licensed to these songs, any idea why it wont convert certain ones?

[Deihmos]

You obviously did not buy the music. If you want to burn it to a cd purchase it and it will burn to a cd. I thought this forum did not promote piracy?

[blutach]

We don't. Posters would do well to read rule 6.

Plus there's a big difference in having a license to play and owning the material.

Regards

[tastyratz]

Who said anything about piracy?
I have napster, and pay for the service. I have for months. the DRM is killing me because my cars cd player is old and doesnt support drm.
How is that different from people using this to listen to music in their ipod?
I have a cd player in my car that can play mp3/wma cds. Instead of burning 10 cds, I want to burn just a few cds full of wma files (as in not like a regular cd) to bring the music with me and listen to it in my car.

[4Dude]

The problem these companies see is:

If it can be gotton around,IT WILL BE ABUSED TO RIP THEM OFF!!!! (Thats what they dont want)

It does make it EXTREMLY HARD for an innocent person to do what they would like with thier media,but they are looking at the bottom line.....So if your CD player doesnt support DRM,you need to use a sound recorder and make a basic copy,then transfer it to CD... (Which should play fine)

Good luck!

[tastyratz]

oh absolutely, I realize the purpose of drm, as well as what the "big four" thinks of people who use fairuse. Im sure they would prefer i purchased a copy for my home cd player, a copy for my car, and pay to download a copy for my computer. Maybe even just send them the money for nothing in return but the blessings of the kind souls who run the place.

I realize there are other ways to copy media, such as sound recorders (aka tunebyte, etc.) ....
however re-recording media in an analog fashion results in a loss of quality... Ive done it, Ive heard it. It sounds damn close I know... however to do that you have to make sure you pick a higher bitrate than it was recorded in to maintain alot of the original information. This results in larger files that sound worse. Otherwhise I would have turned these all into mp3's a long time ago.

My issue is directly with the use of fairuse4wm

[4Dude]

Ah i see.........

I understand i guess :)

Ya see all peoples dishonesty over the years has made it HARD for people that just wanna make copies for themselves and NOT make a profit,etc...

:(

[pplsfrntofjudea]

Ok, so i have been using fairuse succesfully for a while now, great program by the way, and I have been seeing posts about "FairUse 4WM Commander" and going through this thread I couldn't find a place to download it... I'm not sure if it has been removed, or I'm just missing it completely. If anyone could point me in the right direction, your help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance :)

[sonicbox]

tastyratz, no car CD player "supports DRM" -- old or new. Sorry, but your Napster content doesn't allow what you want to do. Since you "pay for the service" and have been doing it for "months", I must assume you are using the subscription service.

Invest in a portable MP3 player from Sandisk, Creative Labs, iRiver, etc. (all subscription service compatible) and use it in your car. It's more convenient than Audio CDs and files on a Data CD. I can't even imagine using a CD player anymore. (Regretably... If you don't have an AUX jack or equiv., a cassette adapter or FM trasmitter is the only option until you upgrade your car deck.)

4dude, if you purchase content from any of the services there is no need to "use a sound recorder and make a basic copy,then transfer it to CD.." -- you can burn audio CDs directly. (FYI: I agree DRM is stupid for purchased content. Why do it, when you can burn a DRM-free Audio CD with it?)