Silicon.com: Microsoft hacked as digital music row resurfaces

[Owen Blacker]

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| HEADLINE: Microsoft hacked as digital music row resurfaces
| PUBLISHED: 2:23pm on Monday 22nd October 2001
| CHANNEL: Ebusiness security
| AUTHOR: Pia Heikkila
| SERVICE: http://www.silicon.com
|
| TEXT OF STORY FOLLOWS:
|
| Copyright protection programme falls to anonymous music fan...
|
| A hacker has broken Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) system 
| which is designed to protect the copyright of audio files.
|
| An anonymous hacker using the name Beale Screamer claims to have 
| broken the Version-2 of Microsoft's DRM software and has produced the 
| source code and DOS utility available for anyone who wishes to crack 
| the WMA audio files.
|
| The author has published a detailed explanation of MS DRM weaknesses 
| on the internet and his views on the American Digital Millennium 
| Copyright Act (DMCA).
|
| The hacker was quoted on IT security site Securityfocus.com saying: 
| "What is bad is the use of DRM to restrict the traditional form of 
| music sale. When I buy a piece of music, I expect my traditional fair 
| use rights to the material. I should be able to take that content, 
| copy it onto all my computers at home, my laptop, my portable MP3 
| player... basically anything I use to listen to the music that I have 
| purchased."
|
| The DMCA, which forbids any efforts to circumvent copy protection 
| programs, caused controversy last summer when Russian hacker, Dmitri 
| Skylarov was arrested under the act for designing a program that 
| circumvents the copy protection on electronic books. In August this 
| year a group of Princeton scientists, led by Professor Edward Felton, 
| had hoped to publish their findings into similar technologies for 
| bypassing protection, but delayed the publication after the Recording 
| Industry Association of America threatened to sue the dons.
|
| For related news, see:
| Freedom in the air for Dmitri?
| http://www.silicon.com/a46768
| Dmitri gets breathing space
| http://www.silicon.com/a46743
| 'Free Dmitri' campaign takes case of hacker to US embassy 
| http://www.silicon.com/a46196 Adobe backs down in Russian hacker case
| http://www.silicon.com/a45997
|
| STORY ENDS
|
| For more information on silicon.com go to http://www.silicon.com.
|
| silicon.com - the who, what, when, where and why of ebusiness

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