Smirnof100's No Nonsense Legal WMA-DRM Removal Guide w/o changing current software

[smirnof100]

I've decided to just link to my website. http://www.ngook.com/archives/1
Peace.

[smirnof100]

Oh ya, i almost forgot. If you get an error message trying to run fairuse commander (applicatoin failed... error code 135) then you need to install the .net framework.

http://www.microsoft.com/NET/

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Nothing to do with what does or doesn't work - I'm just taking exception to your statement that:without screwing with any of your current setup.It's just a bit hard to accept that statement when it's followed with all of the following:Go get (and install) a copy of Virtual Box.

Use N-lite on your copy of xp to remove wmp from the install.

...change the image file in the cd drive to the vboxguestaddons.iso file, and in device manager hit update driver and goto cdrom drive(most likely D)\32Bit\Windows\3rdParty\AMD_PCnet and use that driver.
Also autoplay (install the addons)

Also install ie7 if you went tiny xp route you need it to upgrade your components.


...then you need to install the .net framework.

[KenD00]

You obviously don't understand what's VirtualBox for...

:rolleyes:

[setarip_old]

@KenD00

Hi!

Your statement is incorrect. I have a different interpretation than the OP and you apparently do, as to what constitutes "screwing with any of your current setup"...

[RunningSkittle]

@setarip: So aside from having to install virtualbox, what else in the host OS is changed? Nothing. This is what a virtual OS is for. The installation of .net, IE7, WMP is all done inside the guest OS.

[blutach]

Let's stay on topic instead of playing semantics. Please.

Regards

[smirnof100]

installing virtual box wont screw with any of your setup.

every other solution i have found on the internet involves "rolling back this" or "make a dual boot for that" and "you need to update this."

When i say use nlite to remove wmp, im not refering to what you have installed now, im refering to the install disk for xp.

the beauty of virtualbox is you can start it use and and then turn it off, and everything else that is your current windows setup is untouched.

so if you count installing virtual box, then my method will only mildly screw with your setup, but everything that you are supposed to do is to be done INSIDE virtual box. Being inside virtual box it does not affect anything else on your system.
good luck.

[srp336]

I'm trying to follow this guide using TinyXP Rev 09. Everything goes fine until after I install wmp 10. I go on to follow the link to install ie7. It seems to install, then I restart and I don't see any sign of ie anything. I've tried ie6, but it seems to think it sees a newer version. I don't see anything in add/remove programs.

I used the TinyXP BARE option without ie/oe/wmp and WITH additional driverpacks. Should I have used a different option?

Thanks!

[smirnof100]

did you follow the link in the guest os? Im not sure if it makes a difference, but i opened up firefox (which was installed with tinyxp) from the guest os and visited the sight and downloaded and installed it from there. thats the only thing i can think of... make sure you are downloading ie7 for the 32bit version of xp, regardless of the host os, because the guest os is going to be in 32bit and tinyxp is 32bit. does it jump through all the hoops of installing or does it not do anything... also dont use virtual box to "save state" at this point, make sure your starting a fresh boot and not reloading a saved state (which would reload you to the point before you had installed ie7). Let me know if any of that helps.

[ghelyar]

A bit of a side topic but this is what I didn't get:
Step 1: Go get (and install) a copy of Virtual Box.

Its Like vmware or virtual pc but its free and works great.

You imply that VMware and Microsoft Virtual PC aren't free and don't also "work great".

VMware Server is also free and works better across many platforms than Virtual Box. Anyone who knows anything about virtualization either goes for VMware or possibly Xen (Xen does not apply here). For a Windows guest on a Windows host, Virtual PC also works well.

Most users would be best off doing this with the free VMware Server 2.0 (better for compatibility, better for performance, better 64bit support, etc)

[srp336]

did you follow the link in the guest os?
[...]
also dont use virtual box to "save state" at this point, make sure your starting a fresh boot and not reloading a saved state

Yes, I followed the link in the guest os. I'm pretty sure it was the 32 bit version, but I'll check that.

I'm wondering about this "save state". Is that on by default? Rebooting seems to open all windows the way they were, so maybe this is on? I'll check tonight.

Thanks!

[JackSnap]

Looks a great guide to me..
Will this work for any DRM, or just music,
would it work for example on videos from the iplayer service?

[ghelyar]

Looks a great guide to me..
Will this work for any DRM, or just music,
would it work for example on videos from the iplayer service?

WMV is essentially the same as WMA. I don't know if there are slight differences but I do know that I didn't even notice that this article was specific to WMA so it must be pretty similar.

WMV uses licences, key dlls, content keys, etc to encrypt its content. I know that if you can get the WMV DRM protected content to play on Windows Media Player, you can use this (or something very similar to this) to remove the protection so that you can play it on other things.

The first steps (up to individualising the system - you should probably take a snapshot of the guest here too) and last steps (fair use for WMV) are the same anyway.

Content downloaded with Demand Five (via an RTSP downloader) can be played in WMP but content downloaded with 4OD can't, for example, because the 4OD content won't retrieve the licence file (used to generate the key needed to decrypt it) unless you use 4OD's built in player. I don't know if you can just sniff the licence in that instance with wireshark or if it uses HTTPS. I don't know if BBC iPlayer uses WMV but if the others do it stands to reason.

[smirnof100]

ghelyar: My apologies, but i am a fan of free software when you can get it and i never bothered to check out vmware or virtual pc... i have used them in the past and they work fine but when i used them in the past there was no free option available... I also compared it to vmware or virtual pc because its something many people can relate to, and thats what i geared the guide towards.

JackSnap: I wrote this geared towards any drm audio encoded with the windows media drm encoding (napster, yahoo, rhaposody... others) but in theory you can use any software that can remove drm that you dont want to install on your host os. If iplayer uses microsofts wmv drm protection, then it should work in theory because the setup bases the protection on your wmp version, in this case, version 10, which has long been cracked.

if it uses a different drm you will have to get that software to remove the drm, but it should all still work in virtual box... good luck.

[ghelyar]

ghelyar: My apologies, but i am a fan of free software when you can get it and i never bothered to check out vmware or virtual pc...

Was just letting you (and the readers of this thread) know that VMWare Server has always been free (even for commercial use - the full VirtualBox is not free for commercial use) and it's been out for something like 3 or 4 years (probably older than VirtualBox' first release). It works on both Windows and Linux, 32 and 64 bit hosts and guests for both (by far the best 64 bit guest support compared to anything else - most don't even do 64bit guests), you get really good support on their forum, you can separate the backend and the frontend to run your VMs from a different computer to the one you interface with it on, etc.

It's not just a free trial or anything either, it's free for life and has pretty much all of the features of their enterprise level products (enterprises would just use Xen or VMWare ESX because they are hypervisors but most of the features of VMWare ESX are also in VMWare Server).

Most of the Linux ones like Xen and QEMU have problems with Windows guests while the Windows one (Virtual PC) has problems with Linux guests, while VMWare seems not to have a problem on either. The only problem I had with VMWare was that version 1.0 of VMWare Server didn't run on a Vista host (but 2.0 does now).

I would at least say that you should suggest VMWare Server 2.0 on par with Virtual Box rather than saying that VB is flat out better. If you tried it yourself, you may even switch to it.

Anyway, getting a bit off topic now so I'll shh about it.




As I said about the WMA vs WMV, you pretty much just skip the napster step and use a slightly different tool to remove the encryption.

Both of those tools pretty much need an almost unpatched, individualised version of Windows XP so if you don't already use that as your main system, use the aforementioned virtualisation software to do it as it is easier and safer (e.g. can't bork your MBR) than dual booting.




By the way, does this guide work with a XP SP3 guest or is that too new?

[smirnof100]

ok, guide is edited... so far virtualbox has done everything i wanted it to do, so its comparing apples to apples, except it throws an error when i try to install driverstudio (softice) as a kernal debugger... it installs but doesnt boot properly... not sure if thats a windows tinyxp thing or the virtual environment, but if i can get vmware to to boot to tinyxp using softice then i will be happy :) Anyways use whatever works good for you people out there.

I have not tried it with sp3 but if you have a slipstreamed copy of xp and you use nlite to remove all traces of wmp, then in theory it shouldnt make a difference because what you have installed is wmp10 as per the guide. Besides, the whole point of stripping xp to the bare minimum is to get something small and simple that you can boot, dl, decrypt and copy, in 4 easy steps once its set up... but if your usin your virtual environment for other things then i could see you using it. If anyone does try it let us know but i see no reason why it wouldnt work.

[srp336]

I think I've gotten a bit further. Using a different option when installing TinyXP (NOT BARE, no OE/IE/WMP, with DriverPacks), I was able to go all the way through the guide.

I tried installing Rhapsody and it seems to have left me with the very latest DRM files, the one that none of the tools work on. Is this just the latest Rhapsody client? Is there anywhere I can get an older one (oldversion.com didn't have it).

I've got a working setup on another machine (not virtualized), but I'm afraid of losing it...

Thanks!

[fredflintstone]

For what it's worth: I followed this guide to the letter, using virtualbox & tinyXP rev09 and it worked a treat.

Thanks for taking the time to do the guide. Like you, I was overwhelmed with the volume of conflicting information & misinformation out there.

Now if only people would stop clogging up this thread with pedantic nit-picking...

[smirnof100]

srp: wmp is a sneaky bastard... try this: uninstall raphodsy. Install nlite on the guest operating system and use it to strip out all traces of wmp. It will usually do it on a live os but will require a few restarts and a couple of message boxes warning you of the potential to screw up your system (which wont matter on a virtual box :) if you installed tinyxp rev09 i believe it has the newest version of wmp on it, and just because it let you install wmp10 doesnt mean that the drm traces left behind arent the new stuff. nlite should be able to get rid of all that stuff. Then delete your drm folder (documents and settings/all users and remember its hidden). Then install wmp10, then rhapsody, then individualise. Lemme know.

Also i recieved an email from someone saying that there are some music providers who now require a wmp update to work, but this setup still works on the current version of napster as of jan 24 of 09. He didnt say what software it wouldnt work on tho so i take that with a grain of salt.

Also my notify me of reply is appearently not working so i thought the thread had gone quiet... sorry about that.

[sonicbox]

So, off the topic a little. But who sells protected content anymore? I thought Napster and Rhapsody (mentioned in this thread) went DRM free for all purchased tracks like everyone else. So what's the point of this?

I just looked again, and the original poster here also says he uses this process with "Napster To Go", which is a subscription service and not a purchase service, so isn't this a TOS violation?

[Guest]

I just looked again, and the original poster here also says he uses this process with "Napster To Go", which is a subscription service and not a purchase service, so isn't this a TOS violation? Napster To Go provides a purchase option also.

[srp336]

srp: wmp is a sneaky bastard...
Thanks for your response, but I've actually gotten this to work with Napster (new subscriber here!). Used TinyXP on both virtual machines, but it looks like the Rhapsody installer is doing the upgrading to DRM...

[sonicbox]

Napster To Go provides a purchase option also.Sure, but as I posted... isn't that DRM free?

[Ajax_Undone]

Should be. Unless your purchasing the already downloaded songs that are rented. Once you select purchase it changes the license from rent to own but does in no way remove the DRM. :-\ If you purchase the song and download it no DRM is applied...

This is what I hear anyway... It might be wrong...

I canceled my service a long time ago I just rip DVD audio and CD's now and skip the whole mp3 fiasco...

[smirnof100]

Napster To Go provides a purchase option also.

Napster to go lets you rent music at the fixed monthly rate (14 bucks a mo) with the drm built in. With the to go service, you can get a drm capable wma player and copy the music over using napster (they let you have 3 devices).

You can also purchase mp3s of the songs at 0.99 a pop. however, mp3 purchases have to be approved by the artist (ie not all artists on napster offer drm free mp3s of their music).

The one and only "device" i care to listen to my rented music in is my car sterio... has a usb port on it for my thumbdrive and supports nondrm wma's.

so in order for me to take full advantage of my rented music using my napster to go service, i need to remove the drm from it to use it on the only device i care about. If i could not play wma's on my cars head unit, i wouldnt even have the napster subscription because using it on my computer is as useless as ********.

to be 100% legal if i ever cancel my napster service i would need to delete all the music i decrypted... but the economy isnt that bad yet, and i can afford 14 bucks a month to avoid listening to commercials in my music.

so 14 bucks a month or purchase each song i have (probably in the 2-3k range) provided all my music has an mp3 the artist is willing to sell.

and yes, "do not decrypt our music" is probably a violation of the napster tos... if it bothers them that much they can take me to court over it.