By Pia Heikkila, 22 October 2001 14:23
NEWS 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.
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