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Business News Digital
Comes With Music DRM removed by new high speed recording software
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 11 December 2008
Somewhat predictably, the DRM behind Nokia’s unlimited music service Comes With Music has been hacked. Well, sort of.
As previously reported, while Nokia’s new digital music offer provides a year’s access to a huge catalogue of music, and ‘permanent’ ownership of any songs downloaded during that year, the tracks come with a Microsoft digital rights management whatnot that locks the tracks to the Nokia device and/or PC that they are downloaded to, meaning that once the phone and computer the users uses become obsolete access to the tracks is lost.
Bloggers are encouraging Comes With Music users to buy a new bit of software called Tunebite in order to get DRM-free versions of the tracks they download via the Nokia system. The technology, available for £17.50, doesn’t actually alter the DRMed file you get from Nokia, but rather plays and then records the tracks, outputting them as DRM-free MP3s.
Similar software has been available as long as DRM has existed of course – most simply recording what is playing through a PC’s soundcard – but Tunebite is easier to use because it records tracks at a higher speed (54 times normal play speed) meaning you can create DRM versions of tracks a lot quicker.
It’s not clear if Tunebite has been deliberately set up with Comes With Music files in mind, or whether the link between it and the Nokia service is being made just because the phone-maker’s service is the highest profile digital music offer employing DRM at the moment (even though both iTunes and Napster still use DRM on some of their tracks). Certainly Tunebite will play the DRMed Windows Media tracks Comes With Music provides.
It remains to be seen if such technology takes off as services like Comes With Music gain popularity, and if so if the people behind Tunebite can avoid legal action from either Nokia or the labels as they profit from technology designed to usurp copyright protecting technology.
