Protected WMA Files

Polonious

I want to convert some "LEGALLY" downloaded .wma files to .mp3 or .aac format so i can put them on my iPOD. However the .wma files are protected. They were downloaded from mycokemusic.com. Does anybody know how i can get around this.

rsynnott

You can't, legally, get around this.

Bard

Sure you can. Play the WMA file in Winamp or Media Player or whatever plays it and record it in real time in Cool Edit/Adobe Audition.

Infini

Man this is the kind of BS that makes DRM unpopular. :mad:

Dinner

I had to burn them to a cd and then upload it into iTunes

MartMax

Arabel wrote:

I had to burn them to a cd and then upload it into iTunes

before i have DAP with DRM support, i did a similar thing, they were burnt as CD image using Nero and then ripped to mp3... well since they were originally WMA files, at the end the quality kinda compromised...

snappieT

EDIT

Aparently this post was illegal. See the post directly below to find out why.

rsynnott

Bard wrote:

Sure you can. Play the WMA file in Winamp or Media Player or whatever plays it and record it in real time in Cool Edit/Adobe Audition.

Not legal, tho, under the DMCA and European equivalent... Silly bloody laws. Technically, even telling someone how to get around copyright protection is an offence.

Polonious

Arabel, good call. It worked a treat.

rsynnott - i've paid for them on the understanding that i could burn them to cd or use them on an mp3 player, so no law been broken here.

snappieT

rsynnott wrote:

Not legal, tho, under the DMCA and European equivalent... Silly bloody laws. Technically, even telling someone how to get around copyright protection is an offence.

Whoops!

rsynnott

Polonious wrote:

Arabel, good call. It worked a treat.

rsynnott - i've paid for them on the understanding that i could burn them to cd or use them on an mp3 player, so no law been broken here.

Yep, a law has been broken. Not a sensible, or particularly serious one, but that's life. You can pay for them with any understanding you feel like; evading copyright protection is an offence. I don't AGREE with it being an offence, but that doesn't mean you can go atound saying no law HAS been broken

Capt'n Midnight

rsynnott wrote:

Not legal, tho, under the DMCA and European equivalent... Silly bloody laws. Technically, even telling someone how to get around copyright protection is an offence.

Any ref. to that law ?

IMHO Breaking the encryption would be Illegal
but recording the playback might be legal for personal use - I'm not sure if we can make backup copies of recordings that we have already paid for in this country nor am I sure if two different file formats cound as different media or if that matters

Main Irish Copyright act. http://www.gov.ie/bills28/acts/2000/a2800.pdf

Irish Copyright Ass. http://www.cai.ie/new/links/index.htm

Please note that the CAI is a membership organisation only and does not offer or provide any form of legal advice, referral or information service.

:rolleyes:

Infini

What about that guy DVD John, the guy who cracked CSS. He broke the copyright protection on DVD's and when he was taken to court he won. Besides if you buy something off the internet you should be able to do whatever you like with it right?

MrPinK

It would be illegal under the DMCA alright. If there is any sort of copy protection involved, circumventing it is just as illegal as breaking it. I don't think Europe/Ireland have anything as idiotic or as strict as the DMCA though.

Jon got away with DeCSS because the Norwegians wouldn't extradite him to the US for prosecution, so the MPAA could only try prosecute him under Norwegian law, which wasn't written by entertainment lobby groups.

rsynnott

MrPinK wrote:

It would be illegal under the DMCA alright. If there is any sort of copy protection involved, circumventing it is just as illegal as breaking it. I'm don't think Europe/Ireland have anything as idiotic or as strict as the DMCA though.

Jon got away with DeCSS because the Norwegians wouldn't extradite him to the US for prosecution, so the MPAA could only try prosecute him under Norwegian law, which wasn't written by entertainment lobby groups.

It's CERTAINLY illegal under the DMCA, which bans all circumvention, even if it's easy circumvention (record from audio out, hold down shift while inserting DRM-loaded CDs, etc.).

That section of the DMCA is apparently also present in the new WIPO copyright treaty: http://www.wipo.int/ which Ireland either has already adopted or will be adopting soon (seems to be difficult to find this out precisely :S)

Capt'n Midnight

This thread too http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=235160

from the long quote in post 6

If you portable player is not supported and have purchased a track with
CD-burn rights, it is not illegal for you to make a copy of this track for
personal use. As far as I am aware, this would also apply to making a copy
of it from the burned CD to your portable player.

So I suppose the question now is did the original download have CD burn rights ?

D

Infini wrote:

What about that guy DVD John, the guy who cracked CSS. He broke the copyright protection on DVD's and when he was taken to court he won. Besides if you buy something off the internet you should be able to do whatever you like with it right?

The only reason that he wasn't prosecuted was the fact that he realeased how to do it onto the internet. Therefore he made no profit from it and claimed to have done it for educational reasons.

Captain Midnight: Recording playback for personal use is only legal if you have express written permission.

Also even recording music from a cd to a tape so that you can play it in a car is illeagal.

When you buy an albumn/single etc you do not but the music or even the cd.

What you are buying is a liscence.

Specifically in most cases the liscence to listen to the music on the cd in a private and non-profitable manner.

Don' get me wrong no one is going to come around and kick down your door for coping music to a cassette so that you can listen to your music in a car. But companys leave the liscence so stric to ensure that if they want to press charges that they can.

aphex™

D wrote:

Also even recording music from a cd to a tape so that you can play it in a car is illeagal.

Which Irish law is that from?

aphex™

Polonious: you can burn files from the coke music store to a cd, this from their FAQ:

What are CD burn rights? (back to top)
Downloaded music can be 'burned' to a CD. The number of times that a track can be burnt to CD varies track by track and is determined by the Record Labels. The media player uses the license associated with each track to check that a particular track can be burned to a CD.

How do I burn songs to a CD? (back to top)
First check that you have the correct CD writing hardware attached to your computer. Also, check that you have the correct windows media player 'plug-in' for your CD drive. If you are not sure about this, refer to the "Portable Devices" section of the windows media player.
To Burn a CD, you can perform these steps:

Create a new playlist (from media library)
Add the required songs to this playlist
Use the "Copy To CD" option from the File menu

So put the cd into itunes or whatever then convert. I've bought DRM's wma files before that allowed me to (legally) burn to cd a number of times. Needed some ROXIO plugin for windows media player.

rsynnott

It's interesting to note that when the VCR came out, the MPAA went to a lot of trouble trying to get it banned.

4Xcut

Afaik once you own something you can make as many copies as you like as long as its only for personal use or backing them up. if you sell them, rent them, etc. then you infringe on the copyright law.

rsynnott

4Xcut wrote:

Afaik once you own something you can make as many copies as you like as long as its only for personal use or backing them up. if you sell them, rent them, etc. then you infringe on the copyright law.

If the item isn't copy-protected, then yes. However, for copy-protected items, evading the copyright protections is verboten.

Capt'n Midnight

I'll wait a little longer for authoritive links before I close the thread and seperate the opinions / moral rights from the legal stuff

D

aphex&#8482 wrote:

Which Irish law is that from?

Well the Imro represents the Irish Government when it comes to music copyright and they recognise the Uruguay Round Agreements Copyright Act of 1972.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation holds the legislation for each affiliated country, Ireland included, so for a comprihensive view of Irish legislation go here:

http://www.wipo.int/clea/en/clea_tree1.jsp?expand=IE#IE

Hope this helps to clear things up.

Capt'n Midnight

Polonious wrote:

Arabel wrote:

I had to burn them to a cd and then upload it into iTunes

Arabel, good call. It worked a treat.

rsynnott - i've paid for them on the understanding that i could burn them to cd or use them on an mp3 player, so no law been broken here.

The original problem was sorted - looks like the downloads had CD burning rights. Everything I've looked is aimed at commercial piracy or time delay recording of broadcast and lots of personal use clauses but none clearly apply here AFAIK, and it's drifted a bit from the "windows" even though copyright is a central issue with Microsoft Windows.

CLOSED