DRM and I Go Head to Head: And it's a Draw

[Jason Dunn]

I've just emerged from a scuffle with DRM, and I'm one for two in the battle. Here's what happened: recently I went out shopping with my wife, and among other things, I bought five new CDs. I love music, and am happy to support the artists whose music I enjoy. The CDs I bought: Anna Nalick (Wreck of the Day), Hayley Westenra (Odyssey), Wide Mouth Mason (Shot Down Satellites), Nickelback (All the Right Reasons), and Dave Matthews Band (Stand Up). Of those five CDs, three were DRM free, and two were not. Guess which two? The most popular of the five of course: Nickelback and DMB. I had heard stories about the DMB album, which is why I put off buying it for months. I've had a few DRM'd CDs come my way lately, and the DRM was easy enough to bypass, so I figured I'd give it a shot.<br /><br />The Nickelback CD had some DRM on it that was tricky: holding down the shift key to bypass the autoplay didn't help, because I still couldn't rip it. Playing a hunch, I tried ripping the CD in Rio Music Manager, a rather archaic audio program used to load up my wife's Rio Sport. Guess what? It's such a "dumb" program<!>, it was able to rip the Nickelback CD without a problem. <a href="http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/support/rio/downloads/rmm/Rio_Software_Ver290.exe">Grab the Rio program 1while you can</a>.<br /><br />The DMB CD has proven to be much more difficult to rip - it wouldn't rip in WMP when the shift key is held down, and it wouldn't rip in Rio Music Manager either. I thought I'd try the most hardcore CD ripping program I'm aware of: <a href="http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/">CDex</a>. This is the program that does error correction and does everything it can to get the perfect rip. I started the rip before I went to sleep, and when I woke up the next morning it was only 50% finished the CD! I thought it was working, so I gave it another few hours, but when I checked the first ripped track it was silence. Foiled! I did a bit of research to see if someone had found a way to bypass it, but all I came up with was <a href="http://www.dmband.com/news/news_popup_iPod.asp">instructions from the band themselves</a> on how to bypass the DRM...but it's nothing more than a "burn and re-rip" solution. Worse, for some reason I can't get the installer to start so I can get the DRM'd WMA files off the CD. I can't do <i>anything</i> with this stupid CD! I'm tempted to return it to the store, but I might try going into a local store and borrowing a Mac to rip the CD, then I can transfer the MP3s onto my USB flashdrive. For the first time in my life, I actually need a Mac for something that my PC can't do.<br /><br />As a side note, I had always assumed (a dangerous word) that the bands knew and supported the DRM encryption when it was on their album. But after reading about <a href="http://www.stereogum.com/archives/001851.html">how Switchfoot feels about DRM on their album</a>, it made me realize that's not the case at all. So it's a case of the fans and the band versus the record label. Hmm. One makes the music, one pays for it, and the other stands in the middle collecting most of the profit. Record companies perform important PR and marketing roles for bands that are just starting out, but once a band has an established fan base, I wonder how viable it would be for them to sell their music directly to their fans? Something to ponder for another day my fellow geeks!<br /><br /><i>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Alberta, Canada.</i>

[mjhamson]

Jason,

If I was about.. I would lend you a mac!!! Yes, I think it is time for a shift in the way a band goes to studio, is marketed, and the consumer purchases.

:-)

p.s. since you don't have a mac, ever think about using a linux boot? if you have 2 cd players, you can do Linux on CD. Not sure how slow/fast it is. I noticed a slowdown when I did a Mac on CD.

[Jason Dunn]

p.s. since you don't have a mac, ever think about using a linux boot? if you have 2 cd players, you can do Linux on CD. Not sure how slow/fast it is. I noticed a slowdown when I did a Mac on CD.

Yes, actually, that thought occurred to me today - I remember trying a Linux distro that was on CD...any suggestions which one? I'll do some searching.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Knoppix is one Live CD distro you can check out.

I've always avoided DRMed CDs, and refuse to support them in anyway, even if I can bypass the copy protection. I feel we must send a message to the record companies that we won't take this sort of nonsense.

Incidentally, what's wrong with burning and re-ripping?

[Jason Dunn]

Incidentally, what's wrong with burning and re-ripping?

It depends on the bit rate of the DRM'd WMA files - if they're 128 kbps, burning that and re-ripping would result in crappy sounding music. If they're 256 kbps WMAs, I'd happily burn and re-rip and not be able to tell the difference. Burn and re-rip is a last resort option that I use to bypass the DRM on music-store-bought WMA files.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm confused. Why would a Mac be the end-all-be-all solution? ***begins eyeing a Mac mini***

Because the companies making the DRM software know it's not worth the developer costs to create/implement a DRM solution for computers that only make up 1.8% of the world-wide computer market. So in that regard, Mac users benefit from easily bypassing DRM the same way they do most viruses - the obscurity of their platform is an advantage.

I'm downloading a Linux distro right now, one that I can boot off of a CD from, and that's a better solution than buying a Mac Mini. ;-)

[Phoenix]

...I'm downloading a Linux distro right now, one that I can boot off of a CD from, and that's a better solution than buying a Mac Mini. ;-)

Let us know how it goes.

[bryhawks]

James, my heart bleeds for you and your 30" Apple Cinema Display...

[Jason Dunn]

James, my heart bleeds for you and your 30" Apple Cinema Display...

:drinking: Bwahahahahaha....yeah, it's a little tough to pity a man with a 30" Cinema Display. :lol: (still that seems lame the Mac Mini can't do it)

[bikeman]

Jason, which Linux distro are you using? Unfortunately, not all of them are created equal. Many will not play DVDs, mp3s, or wmas right off the CD due to licensing issues. Some can, and others can be upgraded, so you should be okay in the long run. Linux can give you great power and control, but you have to work for it.

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, which Linux distro are you using? Unfortunately, not all of them are created equal.

I'm using Knoppix. Tried using The CD Kreator to rip the CD, it got to 65% then hung, hard. Looks like Linux itself crashed because the DVD drive I was running Knoppix from was freaking out, scanning and scanning. :roll: Rebooting now to try again.

Linux can give you great power and control, but you have to work for it.

Which is precisely what I don't want to do. That might be great for some people, but I want to spend my time creating things, not fighting with a computer that's supposed to work for ME. :wink:

[gibson042]

I thought I'd try the most hardcore CD ripping program I'm aware of: CDex (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/). This is the program that does error correction and does everything it can to get the perfect rip.
Might I suggest EAC (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/)? I used to rip with CDex, but I switched to the more advanced EAC about a year ago. It lets you pick the extraction method from about four possibilities, from "burst" (which just simulates playing the CD and writes the audio to disk) to "synchronized" (which acts like CDex; re-reading errors) and on up to "secure" and "paranoid" modes (which read the low-level CD data and attempt to interpret it using increasing amounts of error correction, both embedded in and external to the CD). The "secure" and "paranoid" modes are often able to recover data that CDex cannot. It is free-as-in-beer but not free-as-in-speech software.

[jeffd]

from what I could find about lablegate, the protection used, it is one of the more complex DRMs, but still relies on the autoplay, so if you have autoplay off, it should keep it playable on pc.

I also actually saw a post saying lablegate makes the cd not even playable on macs. Lablegate was put into use by sony in 2003 and I guess they stoped using it in 2004.

[Jason Dunn]

Might I suggest EAC (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/)? I used to rip with CDex, but I switched to the more advanced EAC about a year ago.

I've used it in the past but had forgotten about it - I'll give it a try.

[Jason Dunn]

from what I could find about lablegate, the protection used, it is one of the more complex DRMs, but still relies on the autoplay, so if you have autoplay off, it should keep it playable on pc.

That's what I thought as well, but when I held down the shift key for a very long time, then tried ripping/playing it, I got jittery audio and it would not rip. I'm trying EAC now...

[OSUKid7]

Yes, actually, that thought occurred to me today - I remember trying a Linux distro that was on CD...any suggestions which one? I'll do some searching.
Knoppix works, or I would recommend trying Ubuntu. (http://www.ubuntu.com/) It has a "Live" version that is CD bootable. You can even order free Ubuntu CDs (https://shipit.ubuntu.com/) (and free shipping) of both the Live and Installable versions.

[jeffd]

Wow... free shipping.. how the hell do they do that?!

[OSUKid7]

Wow... free shipping.. how the hell do they do that?!
Finanicially, I'm not really sure. But as long as people don't abuse it, they'll keep offering the great service.

[Darius Wey]

Yes, actually, that thought occurred to me today - I remember trying a Linux distro that was on CD...any suggestions which one? I'll do some searching.

Knoppix is great, though I'm a huge fan of Fedora. (http://fedora.redhat.com/) It's not a distro that readily runs on CD/DVD without a bit of tweaking, but if you're willing to give your HDD another partition or even use VPC, you'll find Fedora to be a really refined Linux project.

[smirando]

Try http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

It depends on the bit rate of the DRM'd WMA files - if they're 128 kbps, burning that and re-ripping would result in crappy sounding music. If they're 256 kbps WMAs, I'd happily burn and re-rip and not be able to tell the difference. Burn and re-rip is a last resort option that I use to bypass the DRM on music-store-bought WMA files.

I don't find it so. I have a bunch of 128kbps WMA files (Guild Wars OSTs :D) and I find them ok after ripping them to MP3s. A few (2-3 incidents in close to 2 hours worth of music) parts could be better, but certainly not what I would consider crappy.

EDIT: (OT) Hey, whatever happened to my AYDMABTU title? :P

[Philip Colmer]

You might want to give this process a try:

http://www.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/~haahrm/copying-protected-cds/

It works under Windows, if you are still having trouble setting up the Linux distro.

--Philip

[Darius Wey]

Jason, have you tried using iTunes 6 for Windows to rip it?

[Jason Dunn]

Try http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/.

Wow, there's a blast from the past! I haven't used Audiograbber in years - I remember buying and and the Xing MP3 encoder, and paying about $75 for them together. Those were the days. PAYING to rip to MP3...how barbaric the early 'Net times were. :lol:

[Jason Dunn]

You might want to give this process a try:
http://www.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/~haahrm/copying-protected-cds/

Interesting process - I've never run across that before. Thanks!

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, have you tried using iTunes 6 for Windows to rip it?

I haven't, but I don't think it will work - the instructions that DMB released were specifically for iTunes users, because they couldn't rip it.

[Darius Wey]

I haven't, but I don't think it will work - the instructions that DMB released were specifically for iTunes users, because they couldn't rip it.

Interesting. I just tried ripping three DRM-crippled CDs in iTunes and it worked fine. Having said that, none of those CDs are very recent releases, so it could just be a case of old technology being easily bypassed.

[Jason Dunn]

Interesting. I just tried ripping three DRM-crippled CDs in iTunes and it worked fine. Having said that, none of those CDs are very recent releases, so it could just be a case of old technology being easily bypassed.

Well, I'll give it a try - maybe v6 is different...

[mjhamson]

Jason, sorry for getting back so late..

1st) I second the EAC solution for ALL ripping. its been a while since I have used it, and is the ONE-and-ONLY Windows application I miss. The application is rock solid and beyond anything else on the market. A Very import application for anyone who is serious about their music and archival process.

2nd) There are applications out there that will pseudo-rip a CD by playing the audio CD and hijacking the digital out... then converting the wav-saved output and tagging the end result. I cannot remember the application(s) name... but they are in the wild.

3rd) Interesting thought came to mind about DRM. As much as I hate it (like DVD Regions), I think it could be acceptable if the DRM followed through in the process leaving you with a DRM file (so non-MP3). So long as you have the CD, you could manage the DRM... even re-rip of course. Never the less... no DRM is most friendly to consumers and should be fought for.

4th &amp; final) on which Distro... well... if you go to the website &lt; http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php > you will see a good size list. The one HUGE problem with linux.... WHY SO FRAK'n MANY? but the site might be of interest and help.

[smirando]

Try http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/.

Wow, there's a blast from the past! I haven't used Audiograbber in years - I remember buying and and the Xing MP3 encoder, and paying about $75 for them together. Those were the days. PAYING to rip to MP3...how barbaric the early 'Net times were. :lol:

I agree. But, you'll see that you can download audiograbber for free and use it to rip many drm-protected CDs to high-quality wmvs and lower quality mp3s.

[shoult]

My solution is to use SlySoft's AnyDVD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html) . Don't let the name fool you. While it's main goal is to remove pretection from DVDs it also works on CDs. Ripping DMB's Stand Up CD was no problem when this simple driver was enabled.

[firedog]

I use CloneCD5 - it recognizes the non-music files and rips the CD without including them- if you tell it to copy the CD as an audio CD. I don't know about your specific CD, but it has worked on every protected CD I've tried so far.

[Jason Dunn]

Success! Thanks to all the great suggestions in this thread, I've tried a few solutions for the DMB CD:

CDex: successful rip
iTunes6: successful rip
Linux: disaster
ISObuster: haven't tried yet

Ultimately it seems like this DRM was built specifically to foil WMP10, and iTunes and CDex just prance merrily past it. I'll do a follow up post a bit later.

[Philip Colmer]

Looks like the Sony CD protection causes a lot of problems:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/sony_rootkit_drm/

--Philip