Here’s something that could help music subscription services really take off: FairUse4WM, a piece of software that strips the DRM from WMA-DRM 10/11 music files, has been released, and according to the folks at Engadget, it really works. They tested on subscription Napster tracks with smashing results (that means it removed the DRM successfully).
It will surely be interesting to observe the impact FairUse4WM has on the existing WMA-DRM music stores. And the record companies? I don’t think they’ll like this too much.
Info here http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=114916
Update: Microsoft says they have a patch to stop the program from doing it’s stuff. But I am guessing FairUse4wm will be updated again to get around that – who knows!
Update again: (from http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4043 )
FairUse4WM creators once again break WM-DRM and this time in record time
Only days after Microsoft patched the FairUse4WM DRM hack, the creators of the program have released an update that once again breaks the restrictions on protected WMA and WMV files. The utility works by stripping the DRM information from protected windows media files allowing users to freely manipulate the files and play them back as they see fit….
The apparently failed update from Microsoft changed the IBX in PlaysForSure rendering v.1.1 useless to users who were forced to update through their content provider. FairUse4WM v.1.2 is backwards compatible with files that have yet to be updated. Unfortunately as of right now the software still doesn’t work Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 UR2 users or for the Windows Media Format 9. Although it only took Microsoft 3 days to issue its first fix it appears that the FairUse4WM creators are still one step ahead of the software giant.
The cat and mouse DRM game is heating up elsewhere as well. Apple’s FairPlay was recently circumvented openly as well. Yahoo has opted to distribute music without DRM, bypassing the quagmire Apple and Microsoft are currently in.
goldcoaster 
looking at my logs, it seems a lot of people are searching for – FairUse4WM downloads .
https://goldcoaster.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/fairuse4wm-takes-the-drm-out-of-wma-drm/
where can i download fairuse4WM ?
I don’t have it but the links in the story probably do.
DRM Sucks. I believe FairUse4WM DRM crack should be legal because it only cracks DRM when legally acquired so I believe it should be legal. When you purchase a song and with DRM you can’t play it on a MP3 player then why buy a MP3 player if you can’t put music on it. Author/s of FairUse4WM good job for making things “more fair” and stopping the greedy corporations from extorting MP3 lovers. I believe MP3 should be legal too. With DRM cracks you can play your legally acquired music with a MP3 player.
Thanks for the great comment Alex.
I agree with you completely. I don’t steal anything and I don’t see that restricting me with DRM is fair. I hate the fact that if I buy from one music store I can’t play the music on my ipod. Same goes for if I buy from the very same store (bigpond) I can not play on a Mac computer! All because of DRM.
In my country it is also currently illegal to rip music from a cd to put on your mp3 player. If that is the case why not make the players themselves illegal. Or at least make apple remove the ripping ability in itunes etc….To much money involved I guess… It is easier to blame and push wierd laws onto the consumers.
I have FairUse4WM version 1.3 and when i press “Recover Keys” appear this: “IBX components do not appear to be present” … what can I do?If u have the answer mail pls to cipr1one@yahoo.com 😦
I wont email you but I suggest you ask at the forums. Remember that you must pay for the video/music first and play it once so there is a key available – thats what is said there.
i have the same problem as CiPr1onE but how am i sopposto get a key when it isnt a song i bot?? like its still leagal and every thing but it is an audiobook i got from the online british columbia library but since its not going to be something with a key how am i saposta get it on to my ipod?
If it is protected Windows Media , even if it is free, it needs a key. When you play it once (you don’t have to play all of it) with windows media player it goes online and gets the key automatically – once that happens you can use the FairUse program.
I did the same but still showing the same error, “IBX components do not appear to be present.”
How to fix it? WMP 11 already downloaded the key.
txh for music)))
Holy Shit! I just got all my music playing again on WMP after not being able to play it for 2 years!!! Trying to do the FairUse thingy i delededt wmp 11 and downloaded wmp10. then somewhere somehow after clicking on a song in my library it took me automatically to a page to get a migrated licencse thingy. It was asking to allow me to run an active x control from microsoft called drmstor.dll I accidently didnt allow it and found i still couldnt play songs, so i manually went to the tools tab on IE and then to “manage add-ons” and found the drstor.dll was there but was not enabled – i then enabled it and walla!!!! Everything plays now!!! i’ve spent 10s of thousands of dollars of my time trying to recover thousands of dollars worth of ripped cd’s i’d gotten rid of and i wonder if a microsoft automatic update a couple of years ago had somehow gotten rid of this activex add-on. Guess i’ll probably never know :! Hmmmm, now should i try to take it one step further and remove this DRM crap? I know i never had anything against MS before, now i don’t ever want to risk use wmp again: think i’ll do what i have to do to convert everything to mp3 for good, for ever. Ciao.
Dan, thanks for the great remark. I guess you must have had the check boc checked that put Protection On when you ripped with WinMedia originally.
Thanks for the great tip.
Now this is interesting, thanx for sharing.
it would make it much easier for me
hello
FairUse4WM, a piece of software that strips the DRM from WMA-DRM 10/11 music files