Topic: Walmart online music store DRM servers to be taken offline

[idolminds]

DRM is great, huh?

Walmarts MP3 music store started in August 07 and everything had DRM on it. In Feb of this year they started selling everything without DRM. Since they have "no need" for them anymore, the DRM authentication servers are being taken down.

Of course if you bought any music before Feb 08, you have until Oct 9th to burn it to a CD or you simply lose it. Theres no program to strip the DRM or anything (ok, such a thing probably exists but Walmart isnt supplying it).

This is fucking Walmart doing this, and they think EA is going to keep their shit up for years and years? Get real.

[MysterD]

I just read this online, as well.

This is one of the reasons I dislike this type of online DRM. It doesn't treat you like you OWN a product; it treats it like a goddamn rental product b/c if they pull the authentication servers, if they don't remove the DRM support on the product(s), you're screwed.

So, I wonder how much crazy format transferring and whatnot and CD burning will be taking place from WalMart Music Store users anytime soon, so they don't loose their tracks. And it's possible from format switching, quality loss might occur to.

Great...

The more EA, WalMart's, and others do this type of DRM, the more I think there's going to be a huge revolt against this kind of crap. Let the revolting continue!!

[Cobra951]

Once again, piracy techniques are your friend.  No DRM where you have the encrypted data and the software with the keys is too hard to crack for those who know how to follow the process.  If the data are popular enough, like a music format, the crack is most likely out there already.  In this case, it's a matter of connecting the unsavvy victims with the right decryption tool.

[MysterD]

Theres no program to strip the DRM or anything (ok, such a thing probably exists but Walmart isnt supplying it).

That's a good idea.

But, if such a program exists, I'm guessing the problem might be it would crack more than WalMart Music Store's DRM; maybe even most online music store DRM's.

Once again, piracy techniques are your friend.  No DRM where you have the encrypted data and the software with the keys is too hard to crack for those who know how to follow the process.  If the data are popular enough, like a music format, the crack is most likely out there already.  In this case, it's a matter of connecting the unsavvy victims with the right decryption tool.

I doubt WalMart would supply such a tool -- unless the tool only worked for only WalMart's Music Store.

[Xessive]

Ok, so you can burn these to CD right? You can rip them right off too, right?

With Walmart making this move there's hope for all this DRM crap to crumble and fall.

[MysterD]

Ok, so you can burn these to CD right? You can rip them right off too, right?

Yes and yes.

If you burn a DRM-protected WMA file to disc (into the likely CDA format), you'll be okay. That's the easy way to get around the DRM.
(That's how I gotten around any DRM-protected tracks I've gotten from like Best Buy, who have offered for buying CD's free DRM-protected tracks to download for buying a certain CD, in the past).

Then, if you want afterwards, you can convert that disc copy (which is likely to be CDA format) to whatever file type you want onto hard drive if you want (MP3, OGG, WAV, etc etc) and not sweat any DRM..

You might have to do a hell of a lot of burning, if you bought a lot from WalMart's Music Store, though...that would suck. And even suckier would be if you want to rip 'em back to your HD, too.

With Walmart making this move there's hope for all this DRM crap to crumble and fall.

That's the good thing -- that WalMart got rid of DRM for their music, back in Feb. 2008.

[scottws]

Ok, so you can burn these to CD right? You can rip them right off too, right?

Well, yes, but there is quality loss that will happen due to a 2nd pass through a lossy psychoacoustic engine.

[WindAndConfusion]

Well, yes, but there is quality loss that will happen due to a 2nd pass through a lossy psychoacoustic engine.

I actually tried that particular experiment once, and found no difference between the first and second encoding. (Admittedly I was using the same encoder with the same settings.)