a friend of mine had to format his computer and everything he ripped was using wma, now he is having problems with his backup..... he asked for help, the only idea i had was transcoding but dbpoweramp doesn't accept protected files.
(i tried a forum search but i wasn't able to find)
any ideas?

PS.: sorry for the english mistakes

Search Google for "freeme WMA".

Might help him. Might not.

Tell your friend to start using something other than wma. Mp3 would probably be the most accessible.

You could try a Google search for "unfuck WMA" also.
Never used WMA myself so I don't know if it really works , but some people say it does.
Maybe it's obsolete for the latest WMA versions (WMA 9) , you'll have to try.

Well it is still supposed to be backwards compatable. And we are still talking ASF. So new WMA should not be a big deal since any DRM is stored in the ASF and not the WMA stream. Anyhow. Just another case of those things that Microsoft say can't/don't happen in action.

r the files still playable??

if yes, he can try to use the program TotalRecorder to save a wav of the file, or maybe winamp diskwriter (will need an older version of winamp full, 2.64 if remember it right).
if the answer is no, use one of the tips above^

Um. If he uses any sort of diskwriter he will likely have uncompressed PCM. Or transcoded somthing else. Yech. I would either go for breaking the DRM or my favorite option of re-encoding to a propper format from the original sources again.

How to do it?

"unfuck" will decode the files to PCM and transcode back to a compressed format, while "freeme" will use OpenSSL to actually remove the encryption from the file without decoding it.

However, both of them require that you already have a license for the file. If Media Player won't play it, those tools won't work.

Hey,
Yes, I had the same problem, "unfuck" re-encodes the mp3's into 64k/bits and "freeme" comes up with some error message about encryption keys being too long. I hope someone comes up with a nice DRM "stripper"
LOL,
Burgerings

From rarewares' "Others" page:


I have never tried it myself, and i'm surprised rjamorim didn't mentioned it, but apparently, this is exactly what you need.

Not if he doesn't have the licenses - which got deleted, it seems.

I'm not sure if this would help, but...

http://asfrecorder.sourceforge.net

I use it to download asf/asx files from the internet.(So that when watching streaming video,
I can watch 300/500/1000 K streams while my 256 K adsl doesn't allow that in real-time.
However if the stream is "live", as in it doesn't have a predetermined length it won't work).

When I give it an asf/asx movie file it saves it as .wmv on my computer, the annoying part of that
is that I can't seek in the file .

Maybe if you would put in the asf file it would give a wma file...

Worth trying I guess.

Oh well I hope your friend has learned a valuable lesson.
(Oh well I too have been guilty of ripping to wma, don't do it anymore though )

Edit: I should have said nothing. I'll just mind my own business.
I couldn't care less if you're his friend, or just him on a proxy or whatever.

Well it wouldn't be illegal in Brazil.(seeing Brazil doesn't have the DMCA)
And I do not think mentioning programs (that are probably legal in Brazil) would be illegal on a US message board even if they do things that are illegal in the US.

edit: and yet again I find myself entering philosophical debates. I'll stop now.

Well, I know this much, it applies to the country in which is server is located, not where the person who discusses it is. If someone in Tanzania stores 100Gb of warez on a server in the US, he will get in trouble if discovered.

Read the manual

thankx for the help
i'll try to search for those programs tonight

BTW, I would also recommend locking the original WMA thread, since I guess everything about that subject has already been discussed, and from this point we risk breaking the ToS.

Thread split:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=ST&f=17&t=9360

Bypassing someone elses DRM or security is verboten. Fair enough. But in this case he is only wanting to bypass "his" DRM. And speaking of it in that context there should not be a problem. In fact more pressure should be put on MS just for things like this. Because no matter how much they downplay it there is a problem.

Unfortunately Neo Neko, according to the moronic laws recently enacted in the good ol' U.S. of A, it's still illegal.

True. It doesn't matter whose are the files.

It's the same as DVDs. It doesn't matter if you're the owner, deCSSing them is illegal.

Well we could enter a discussion about advocasy here etc. But I will reffrain from that. It is for the mods of the board to decide what is acceptable or not in the end. Personally I see no problem with such discussion. If someone wants to prosecute me for backing up my own DVD and CDs then thats fine. Bring it on. If I have to bypass security so be it. The DMCA is like locking yourself out of the house and saying "Damn! And I liked that house too. Oh well. It is lost to me. Time to get a new one I suppose.". I mean after all. If you lock yourself out of your house then shouldn't it be illegal to call a locksmith to get back in? You are bypassing security. Albeit your own.

Some laws are meant to be obeyed. IE killing people. Unless they are breaking into your house or posing an immediate threat to your life don't do it. Some laws are meant to be broken/reformed/amended. DMCA? Oh yeah! How are we gonna change obvious crap like that without challenging it. And it is not just the DMCA. But I digress. It's up to the mods/admins.

yep, but if you want to discuss the evils of the DMCA until your head pops off, head to Slashdot. There is a story about it pretty much every day.

i think you guys are too mean/rude about WMA. not all people are 1337 enuff to know about other codecs/formats/software. ppl install Windows98/2K/XP & they see this WMA ripping method in WMP. some of them might go 2 MS site & read about it... see how good WMA is & actually decide to use it.

later on they might learn about other formats & stuff. & then ask questions... like what has been done in this case.

We all dislike wma, because it is inferior to mp3/mpc/ogg/aac and I would say even to speex
So ofcourse we aren't going to say anything like "u Is c00l d00d 4 using wMa"

Anyway the only person who was really rude was madizone and he is banned.

The rest of us tried to helped and remarked that the person would be wise to use another format in the future.

So I think we are being very helpful, especially considering that this is the home of high quality digital audio compression on the net.
We could have said "You loser, get away from our 1337 board and go find help with those script kiddies".
But we did quite the opposite.

just one question...isn't it possible to encode files to wma without using this protection? I've got WMA9 and there is an option called "Copyprotect Music" or something like this...I thought if I don't mark this box it'll play on every computer...how would people be otherwise able to store those files on their portable mp3/wma player?

yeah unchecking that option will make ur files unprotected, enabling them to be played on any machine or player.

salt28, dont get so defensive. i was searching the forums & i found some stuff similar to the "accusations" i made!