Anti-Piracy Feature In Windows Media Player Lets In Viruses
A feature built into Windows Media Player (WMP) which authenticates the validity of a medias licence is being used by hackers to install viruses, trojans and other malicious software on peoples computers.
When preparing to play media the WMP looks for a digital rights management (DRM) licence on the computer and then looks to the internet if none is found. The request then gets diverted to another website where the trojans and viruses are received.
Both the Trj/WmvDownloader.A and Trj/WmvDownloader.B trojans have been found in video files downloaded on P2P networks. A test pc received 58 folders, 786 files and 11,915 registry entries from just one DRM installation attempt.
I bet your friends went to websites like “Super free music now” who say just download and install our special software and you can have all the songs you want!
Or they downloaded Eminem_-_cleanin_out_my_closet.mp3.exe ? etc?
I always ask them if their kids have been going to Kazaa etc, and every time, that's where they went. My solution to them was to keep their kids off the pc unsupervised.
WTF? its the PLAYER, not the damn music it plays. To break it down even more, its like a problem with the STEREO not the TAPE it is Playing. Put the tape in a different Stereo and it works fine.
So use WINAMP.
Kazaa may give you viruses but again that is not the Mp3s you download (Assumming you are actually downloading MP3s and not Executable files.) Kazaa is loaded with crap, MP3s are just music.
Now the problem here is its useless Anti-Piracy Software. How much did this cost the company? How much will the consumer have to cover. Movie and Music industries should abandon all Anti-Piracy software only on its track record. Not one anti-piracy software will stop copies for more than two weeks if that. WMA files were made by microsoft as a anti-piracy music file and it was cracked before it came out. SSE code is on DVDs and there are simple programs that defeat it.
CDs play audio at 44.1khz, out of 3 wires (L channel, R channel and Ground) no matter what you do, if you want to let consumers play it out of speakers it can be copied because of the nature of how a speaker works.
All anti-piracy software ever did was waste money, and drive prices up for companies losses of the software. They pay millions for this crap that doesn't work and CHARGE US FOR IT!!!!
Kazaa has nothing to do with DRM. Its music that is downloaded legally that is most affected by the DRM vulnerability, since music downloaded from free p2p software doesnt use DRM
If you're going to go along with the corporate-controlled DRM bullshit you deserve to get viruses. There's "music" as in the art form that people like to share.. and then there's the "units of product" from the RIAA.
Even their language show's how much they really value music, and now.. playing by their rules you're exposing yourselves to security risks. Hope that's a lesson for those who buy in to the DRM crap.
This is the field in which you have rights and the music industry has rights and are fought out.
You loose rights and they rarely loose them but sometimes they do.
But the Real crime here is they never tell you your rights. Just what you can't do, acording to them.
In Canada, I can make a copy of what ever CD music I buy for back-up. So I can use the copy and wear it out. Now of course people abuse that right but It is still my right. Don't Fight me on this, I read it in the Canadian Copy Right Act. I just can't sell it or give to to some one who doesn't own that same CD. If you broke your Beatles Abby Road CD and I had it, I could copy it and that is legal so long as he keeps his damaged copy.
Look at some CDs and look for the "No lending" printed on it. WHO THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?!?!? Can't lend something? WTF? When did that happen? This doesn't mean you can't, it means they don't want you to.
These are perpetuated by Morons who say they want all music downloaded of the Internet illegal. This is stupid because if I make a song, I can put it on my web site. But not if they have their way. Also, no elevator music (MIDIs) on web site, that is music.
DMR is where this is fought. DMR is were we win or loose.
Okay, the issue here isnt about using a different player, its about the files being protected and requiring licenses. If you try to play protected files in another application THEY WILL NOT PLAY. This is what the brujah is about, people downloading protected content of p2p, trying to play it, and in acquiring a license to do so, being infected by trojans and viruses.
See, when WMP (the only software with the rights management technology that is proprietary to microsoft) requests a license, it uses our much beloved IE to open a particular page on the designated server. Its all very ugly.
VLC, I have not found a file it can not play, recently ripped errmm... backed up a dvd, drag the folder into vlc and it will play it normally and quickly too, also you can do some funky lan features with it and it is Free FREE!
ericcode, copy protection really is pointless. It's usually cracked within a day or so of being released, the better it's supposed to be the faster it's cracked because of the challange. If the companies got rid of the (so-called) copy protection, and put that money into the development of the product, we might have better software.
As far as DRM goes...the RIAA/MPAA can't seriously be surprised that people would download music/videos. It costs more money to produce a cassette/vhs tape then it does to produce a cd/dvd, yet the cd/dvd costs more. No wonder I haven't bought a cd in years, I'll stick to streaming media like winamp radio/tv.
