DRM Turnkey

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Powerpoint

Download Powerpoint Presentation

Sunday, March 26, 2006

VBScript File

The VBScript that I wrote can be obtained from http://www.duke.edu/~vnn/cps182s/iConvert.zip

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Friday, March 24, 2006

3rd Group Meeting

A productive but somber meeting.

We had a group meeting yesterday at 9:30 in the McDonalds area of the Bryan Center. Vinh found a way to make a "one click" solution to automate the process of removing the drm from downloaded itunes songs using VBscript. We also created the template for the powerpoint and each group member filled out their part.

Automation

To try to simplify the procedure for converting single files, I've written a short script in VBScript. This script uses iTunes's COM interface and Total Recorder's command line interface to convert iTunes audio files. I'll try to post some pictures of the script in action later.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Using High Criteria Total Recorder to Convert an iTunes Playlist

1.
Purchase, download, and install High Criteria Total Recorder Professional Edition from http://www.highcriteria.com/. Installation of Total Recorder may require a system restart.

2.
Close all running sessions of iTunes or Quicktime (including systray sessions). Go to the Windows control Panel. Double click on the Quicktime icon to open change Quicktime's settings. From the Audio tab, check the box under devices labeled "Safe mode." Click apply and then OK to exit from the Quicktime settings window.

3.
Start High Criteria Total Recorder.

4.
Select the menu item Settings from Total Recorder's Options menu.

5.
From the resulting menu, select Split to bring up the Split settings. Check the box labeled "Split mode." Click on the button labeled Conditions.

From the Conditions window, check the box labeled "if the sound level does not exceed..." Set the related options to split if the sound label does not exceed 3% in 1.0 seconds.

Click OK to save these settings.

6.
From the general settings menu, select Open/Save to bring up the Open/Save settings. Change the default Open/SaveAs folder to the location where you would like Total Recorder to place your converted files.

Click OK to save your changes to Total Recorder's settings.

7.
Select the menu item Recording Source and Parameters from Total Recorder's Options menu. Check the "Convert using file format specified below" and the "Accelerate recording" check boxes. In the Recording Format section of the window, click the Change... button. A window will pop up allowing you to specify the format to save the converted files in. Select MPEG Layer 3 and specified the desired quality level.

Click OK to exit from the file format window. Click OK to save your settings and exit from the Recording Source window.

8.
Start iTunes

9.
Go to iTunes's Edit > Preferences menu. Disable crossfade playback from the Playback tab.

10.
Turn up the iTunes volume to a level close to but not quite at the maximum.

11.
Select your iTunes playlist.

12.
Begin recording in Total Recorder by clicking the record button in the bottom right corner of Total Recorder's main window.

13.
Begin playing your iTunes playlist.

14.
Total Recorder will automatically stop recording when iTunes reaches the end of the playlist and stops playing music. Click the stop button to disable recording mode.

15.
Exit Total Recorder

16.
Go to the folder where you told Total Recorder to store the converted files. Rename the files to more descriptive file names.

Second Meeting

Owen did a lot of research and presented it to the group at the meeting. Here's what he found:

http://www.minidisc.org/ahra.html
This article is an RIAA response to the question of whether copying a CD
to MD(not sure what MD is) is legal. The response makes reference to
the AHRA which is the Audio Home Recording Act. The main part to take
away from the AHRA is that "as long as the copying is done for
noncommercial use, the AHRA gives consumers immunity from suit for all
analog music copying, and for digital music copying, with AHRA covered
devices.

http://www.gesmer.com/publications/new/14.php
This article also discusses the legality of copying digital content.
This article sights the RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. case in
which the RIAA was trying to stop the production of the rio portable
digital audio playing. The ruling was that the AHRA did not apply to
computers because their primary purpose was not for recording audio.
This case was good for Diamond Multimedia because they were aloud to
produce the rio. But this case also set the president that the immunity
from lawsuit for copying digital media under the AHRA doesn't apply to
computers.

www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf
This is a copy of the DMCA with summaries of section 1201 which is the
section that pertains to circumventing copyright protections. The key
to this is that it says that if the item with copyright protection can
be copied under fair use then the copyright protection can be
circumvented legally. So now the issue becomes whether what we are
doing is fair use.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Blogs/wtr_16379,290,p1.html
The only thing of importance in this article is that the RIAA seems to
be backtracking on its earlier statement that, while fair use wasn't a
consumer right, they could be expected to have the freedom to space and
format shift entertainment that had been legitimately purchased. This
is quite interesting that the RIAA seems to believe that they get to
determine the rights of the purchaser of their products.

http://www.eff.org/cafe/cafe_case_analysis.html
This is an article from the electronic frontier foundation. It mostly
sums up the ideas from the AHRA and the RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia
Systems case. They also go into the idea that the rio case upholds the
idea of "space-shifting." With this idea in place we can see what we
are doing is space shifting onto other media players in the computer.
When one downloads from itunes they can only play the media on itunes
media player. But after ripping the audio stream the media will
effectively be space-shifted into a space that allows for playing on
other media players.

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/8057
This article goes into the legality of loading cd's into iPods which
again goes over the idea of "space-shifting."

There is no case law that specifically decides whether this method of bypassing the DRM is legal or not. However, our group decided that the evidence from prior cases points to it being legal. We believe that since our purpose in bypassing the DRM is to make a copy for personal use(both to be able to play the files in windows media player and our third party mp3 player) that qualifies as legal under fair use . Owen goes into more detail in the descriptions above.

Vinh downloaded the songs we selected from itunes and used Total Recorder to remove the DRM. He was succesful in removing the DRM and playing the files with other players.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Song Selection part 1

Here are the songs selected so far for download:

Tomas

Beep by Pussycat Dolls
Always on your side by Sheryl Crow and Sting
Stupid Girls by Pink
Talk by Coldplay
Fresh AZIMIZ by Bow Wow, ...
What's Left of Me by Nick Lachey
Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It by Dem Franchize Boyz Featuring Peenut & Charlay

Owen

Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side
Pixies - Where Is My Mind
Big Pun - It's So Hard
Prefuse 73 - Storm Returns
RJD2 - Ghostwritter
Rage Against the Machine - Mic Check
Limp Bizkit - 9 Teen 90 Nine

Monday, March 06, 2006

First Meeting

Our first group meeting went well. We decided to each pick 7 songs that Vinh would download with the iTunes gift certificate that ola gave us. Once we have the songs downloaded we will be using Total Recorder (the license will be provided by ola) and use this software to remove the DRM from the iTunes songs we purchase.

Currently our group is not sure whether this circumvention of DRM is legal. We looked over some code law at the meeting and initially we are leaning towards the legal side. Vinh brought an interesting O'Reilly article that helped us decide which software we wanted to use for the project. In addition is provided references to relevent code law that supports the legality of this method to remove iTunes DRM.

We will be meeting again on Thursday at 8pm in the McDonalds area of the Bryan Center. In the meantime we will be sending our song selections to Vinh by tomorrow. Vinh will be downloading the songs and removing the DRM. Owen will be researching code law that we will review at the next meeting. Tabie will help with code law research and assist Vinh if he runs into any problems with Total Recorder. I will be keeping the blog up to date with any developments.

This is an interesting article about how one guy examined the Sony rootkit...
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

The Beginning

This is the blog for the Computer Science 182s Project. Our group members are Owen, Tomas, Tabie and Vinh. The responsibilities of each member are as follows:

Owen: Legal Consultant is responsible for researching case-law, finding precedents, and understanding the legal side of this assignment.

Tomas: Blogging Guru is responsible for developing and maintaining the blogging site, ensuring that materials are online and accessible.

Tabie: Ethicist and Ombudsman is responsible for ethical oversight and generally ensuring that all parties are working together, making progress, and doing things "right" at many levels. This person should understand something of each of the areas and be able to assist with each of them.

Vinh: Technical Liaison is responsible for ensuring technical solutions work -- maintaining and installing software, understanding technical issues as they pertain to file systems, scripts, and operating systems. Understanding software problems and developing solutions.

We will be meeting tonight at 9pm in the McDonalds area of the Bryan Center to discuss how we will complete the project and begin work.

DRM Turnkey Goals * Understand the DMCA as it pertains to digital works and copyright, specifically with respect to DRM systems and exceptions to defeating or bypassing such systems. * Research legal cases and precedents, the opinions of the courts (and, where relevant, opinions about court cases from legal scholars, journalists, and special interest groups.)

March 2006