Whaddaya Know? DRM For Nokia's 'Comes With Music' Is Cracked

from the Just-In-Time-For-Xmas dept

It pretty much goes without saying at this point that any DRM can and will be cracked -- and, of course, once cracked, the content is now freely available pretty much anywhere. It still makes you wonder why anyone bothers. The latest is that Nokia's hyped up "Comes with Music" offering (which has been a commercial disappointment) has had its DRM cracked, and it's unlikely that much can be done to block the DRM cracking system. Once again, you have to ask why Nokia even bothered?
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Filed Under: comes with music, drm
Companies: nokia


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Dec 2008 @ 4:03am

    I'm guessing Nokia bothered due to contractual obligations. I'm much more curious why the IP holders of the music bothered.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    AJ, 12 Dec 2008 @ 4:47am

    What will they do?

    If they follow course, they'll sue, raise a big stink and popularize the cracking program which sells for $20. In effect, they'll give a windfall for the author of the crack and look like idiots in the process. Ah yes, the old Streisand Effect is just irresistible for stupid people. How stupid are they at Nokia? Time will tell..

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Ima Fish, 12 Dec 2008 @ 5:20am

    Not cracked

    "The latest is that Nokia's hyped up "Comes with Music" offering has had its DRM cracked"

    I hate to get all semantical, but the DRM was not cracked, merely bypassed.

    "the content is now freely available pretty much anywhere"

    The funny part is that even if the DRM was not bypassed, those songs were still widely and freely available elsewhere. In other words, even a perfect DRM would not stop piracy.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    mslade, 12 Dec 2008 @ 6:18am

    What if...

    Nokia were behind the crack as well? Seems like a nice business to be in.

    1.) Sell music. Profit.
    2.) Create and sell DRM crack for said music. Profit.
    3.) Track down and sue anyone cracking your DRM. Profit.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Dec 2008 @ 6:26am

    Mike the Genius

    DRM is only meant to keep honest people honest. Just like locks on your car or house. If someone really wants in they will get in no matter if you have an alarm or armed guards.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    rochelle, 12 Dec 2008 @ 6:33am

    C'mon it's not that big of a deal

    What's the big ideea?It's not like this tunebite suddenly appeared on the market just to fuck up Nokia's service.And yeah they're not the only ones that have available those songs, u could get them from somewhere else too or use whatever other app is on the market that crack the drm.
    And if u really come to think of it, this software doesn't even crack the drm,the files are just re recorded at high speed.What's illegal in that?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Ima Fish, 12 Dec 2008 @ 6:55am

    Re: Mike the Genius

    "Just like locks on your car or house."

    The problem with your analogy is that people put locks on their own stuff to protect their own stuff. However, when I buy music with DRM, I'm not putting the DRM there to protect it. The DRM does not in anyway protect what I've bought, but actually makes it less usable, less valuable, and more likely to lose by making it more difficult, if not impossible, to back up the data. And worse of all I'm not given the keys to permanently unlock it. Despite the fact that I bought it, the DRM is placed there to keep me the purchaser from fully using it.

    A correct analogy would be a car manufacturer locking the hood to my vehicle to keep me from accessing it. And of course the DMCA would make it illegal for me to bypass the lock to make it a crime for me to get under the hood of my own car.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    ConceptJunkie (profile), 12 Dec 2008 @ 6:59am

    Re: Mike the Genius

    That would be fine if the DRM not only didn't prevent legitimate fair use, but in many cases prevents _any_ use.

    DRM is a concerted effort to get things to _not_ work. This doesn't serve anyone and is a completely broken concept. The software industry has a hard enough time making things work correctly at all, but when you are trying to create something that only works in a very specific, contrived situation you are bound to utterly fail, and in doing so, cause harm to your legitimate customers while doing little or nothing to prevent piracy.

    It's ironic that we went through this whole DRM fiasco in the 1980's with "copy-protected" floppy disks. It was an utter disaster then, because all forms of copy-protection were broken, piracy wasn't stopped and legitimate customers suffered. Eventually it was rejected by the marketplace. But it seems in the computer world, every stupid failed idea needs to be tried and tried again in some vain hope that somehow, the thing that crashed and burned spectacularly every time it was used in the past will suddenly, and miraculously, work this time around.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    John, 12 Dec 2008 @ 7:00am

    Re: Re: Mike the Genius

    A degree in gynecology now makes repairs through the tailpipe feasible.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Bob3000, 12 Dec 2008 @ 7:01am

    Won't be long before tunebite appears on the torrents. So much for that business model as well. Nokia loses twice.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    DanC, 12 Dec 2008 @ 7:03am

    Re: Mike the Genius

    DRM is only meant to keep honest people honest.

    Nope, try again. DRM is more concerned with controlling what people are allowed to do with their purchased content. It obviously doesn't stop or seriously hamper piracy. Instead, it takes those "honest" customers and gives them a product that is less user-friendly and more restrictive than the illegally obtained version.

    DRM doesn't keep honest people honest - it controls what honest people are able to do with purchased content.

    Just like locks on your car or house.

    This inaccurate analogy has been torn apart many times... I don't think there's any point in doing it again. Needless to say, your comparison is not analogous to DRM.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Ima Fish, 12 Dec 2008 @ 7:05am

    Re: Re: Re: Mike the Genius

    "A degree in gynecology now makes repairs through the tailpipe feasible."

    I've always thought that an underutilized form of torture is root canals performed via the anus. Who would not talk after being threatened with that?!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Evil Mike, 12 Dec 2008 @ 7:21am

    Re: Re: Mike the Genius

    A correct analogy would be a car manufacturer locking the hood to my vehicle to keep me from accessing it. And of course the DMCA would make it illegal for me to bypass the lock to make it a crime for me to get under the hood of my own car.

    It's funny you should mention that...

    Didn't Rolls Royce lock the hoods of vehicles they sold, requiring it be taken only to a legitimate Rolls Royce dealer for maintenance and repair?

    Of course, that was a LONG time ago.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    John Smith, 13 Dec 2008 @ 5:36am

    DRM doesn't keep honest people honest - it controls what honest people are able to do with purchased content.

    Where did you get your logic from? CrackerJack?

    DRM is nothing more than a scheme to try to herd people into paying for the same thing as many times as is possible. It has NOTHING to do with honesty or people at all idiot.
    You buy from a middleman who tries to keep a leash on you and what you bought. What you bought is some trivial garbage that noone should give a good goddamn about.
    When the day comes you order your music directly from the artist and a form of drm is put in place, then, and only then, will drm have a leg to stand on.
    Honestly? Only fucking retards actually buy anything directly from a cellphone. Welcome to the herd (of sheep)-NOT

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Lucretious, 13 Dec 2008 @ 1:51pm

    Re:

    Welcome to the herd (of sheep)-NOT.


    "NOT"??


    WTF is this....1990?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Lyca, 14 Jan 2009 @ 1:44am

    I really don't see the meaning of DRM, in my opinion is a good way of making money.. Ok, I pay for my music, let me play it on as many players I want, not only on my pc, what if the pc crashes??? I lose all my music and I have to start over to buy music... Nope. I got tunebite too two years ago and since then I enjoy my music on pc, ipod. And still I don't think I'm doing smth illegal since I bought the music and also this soft isn't a DRM cracker, as it rerecords the original file. Very useful

    link to this | view in thread ]


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