I’ve reported this to the RIAA but as they’ve done (or said) nothing about it I’ve decided to make this public

Some (most?) audio drivers have a loop-back recording device that you can directly record the sound output from (so no analogue loss). As my crappy AC97 motherboard on-chip soundcard has this feature I’d think most cards support it.

To use it first open the volume control panel, then go Options > Properties and select the recording radio button. There’s a list of tick boxes and make sure that whatever the loopback device is, it’s ticked (in AC97 its called “Stereo Mix”)

On clicking ok you’re presented with the volume controls for recording devices. Tick the Select box under “Stereo Mix”. You might need to either max the volume or turn it right down (my card overdrives the volume).

Then load up your sound recording program of choice and hit record. Then if you play any piece of DRM music (you’ll have to sit through it) you’ll get an almost perfect digital copy you can save in whatever format. (In tests I did there was a tiny bit of time shifting, but it was less then 1% difference. A decent card will probably do it perfectly).

This of course shows, once again, that DRM (especially on a CD) is pointless, as it’s so easy to get around. All it does is inconvenience consumers making them more likely to turn to file sharing to get files they can use in they way they choose. (/state the obvious)

As well as that, this seems to mean that Windows (or at least the sound drivers) are in direct violation of the DMCA, as it has provided a way to circumvent DRM technologies and create digital copies of protected files.

I wonder what the RIAA will have to say about this? They’ll probably try to sue me or something, congress has probably made it a felony to point out things that violate the DMCA…



Andrew

Excellent tip.

Revealing that information is also against the DMCA, and that's just one more thing to hate about it.

Beautiful! LMMFAOAFDOTFAD

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha why don't they spend money on doing something constructive

by the way they probably will come after you

PS. Everyone should copy this asap.

oh also quick, everyone paste and copy this article to their documents folder before Leflaw gets a cease and disest order to remove this post

Hmmm, I discovered this method of recording on my own long ago. I thought this was common knowledge. Streamed audio from the Windows Media or RealPlayer can be recorded in this manner. As well as anything played through other media players, no matter the source.

Perhaps Penn State students would record Napster streams this way, if the administration persists in forcing that service down their throats. This method eliminates the need for buying any of the stupid 99 cent Napster downloads. Recordings of their "free" streaming songs would not have any restrictions on portability or file copying.

The thought is delicious.

I thought so...

Duh...

I mentioned that in posts many times when everyone was so worried DRM laws for audio were taking over, during the summer months. Absolutely everything that can be outputted to a speaker can be easily copied, and at high quality too.

Sound card digital loopbacks are one way, but dont always work. Some card manufacturers (eg Creative) are annoyingly friendly with Microsoft, and their drivers will disable digital loopback and digital output when a protected WMA file is playing. Its been irritateing for a few people with digital speakers . There is a setting in DRMed WMA files which, if set to true, will prevent playback on any sound cards that dont do that and have signed drivers from MS to prove it. Its not a very commonly applied setting through, because few sound cards support it. The system is called SAP, and also encrypts the uncompressed audio before passing it to the drivers in case they are compromised. (A kernel module decrypts again before passing to the sound card itsself).

Of course, there will always be a few people with old noncompliant S/PDIF-capable cards

This method could also be prevented in theory using a watermark. Watermakr technology however is not yet prefected: Inudiability, robustness, capacity, pick any two. Ive heard the Verance audio watermark is advanced enough now, but they wont release samples, and noone trusts their claims about inaudability. Even if a watermark technology was available, it would still be almost impossible to force all sound card, software and audio player manufacturers to recognise it. A level of dirty trickery and secret corporate conspiracy that makes DVD look open standard would be required.

Try this, buy DRM WMA from buymusic, liquidaudio and napster. Download JetAudio Baisc and use its conversion tool and set output to WMA with 128kbps the same bit rate you would get at those music online store. It will give you Non-DRM WMAs. Partial lincense like those you would get from Napster Premium wouldnt work but some free LiquidAudio tracks work (and it comes with partical lincense). Napster Premium tracks have like self distructible WMA so after more than a month they wouldnt play because they already expired, the same with free tracks from LiquidAudio and some free WMA tracks from MSN Music.

Note: Napster Premium tracks can be downloaded and can be listed offline BUT you can transfer them to mp3 players or burn them to CDs.

Its good to fuck the music industry.

I think DRM from WMA has already be cracked, I dont know which version tho. And yeah you can capture them thru optical out (with optical in). All you need is iRiver iHP (iHP-100/120) players. The best hard drive player out there. No software to install or you dont even need driver to operate. No upload restriction so you got roaming hard drive. RIAA nightmare when it comes to hard drive mp3 palyer. Truly an iPod killer.

Hercules DigiFire and or their simple 7.1 (withour firewire) has optical out. Even my cheap Iawa CD player has optical out.

10 Gigs for $400 is not an iPod killer. The 20Gig Zen NX is $150 cheaper, better sound quality, and a replaceable battery. Best thing about the iHP is it doesn't need special software to connect to your PC like all the others - that is almost worth the added price.

iHP-120 which has 20GB, you can buy it for under $350 (compuplus). Others offer it for $350, just go to Cnet Review website and search for iHP-120 and click on the "Check for the Lastest Prices" button.

http://reviews.cnet.com/iRiver_iHP_120/4014-6490_7-30571493.html?tag=box

Fool, iHP is an iPod killer, its way way way better than your iPod. Fully functional LCD remote, built in endocer (output to wav or mp3), optical out, optical in, FM, Voice Recoding, Both Database and File Structure, Universal Mass Storeage device so no software or dirver to install and no upload restriction. Ogg support, Great sound with awesome bass and cool EQ. iHP is truly an iPod killer, currently the best hard drive base player out there. iHP kick iPod ass. We'll see if Apple has answer to iHP on their 4G iPod.

iHP-120 which has 20GB, you can buy it for under $350 (compuplus). Others offer it for $350, just go to Cnet Review website and search for iHP-120 and click on the "Check for the Lastest Prices" button.

http://reviews.cnet.com/iRiver_iHP_120/4014-6490_7-30571493.html?tag=box

Fool, iHP is an iPod killer, its way way way better than your iPod. Fully functional LCD remote, built in endocer (output to wav or mp3), optical out, optical in, FM, Voice Recoding, Both Database and File Structure, Universal Mass Storeage device so no software or dirver to install and no upload restriction. Ogg support, Great sound with awesome bass and cool EQ. iHP is truly an iPod killer, currently the best hard drive base player out there. iHP kick iPod ass. We'll see if Apple has answer to iHP on their 4G iPod.

Ive seen portable MP3 recorders, but every one ive seen is poor-quality mono only. Ive heard some manufacturers are scared people will take them into concerts if the quality gets too good

WMA DRMv2 has been cracked, yes. But most commercially sold files are DRMv1. They were when the Freeme decryption utility was released, and theres no way the DRM-users will switch to v2 now.

All these digital loopback techniques can be used to break the DRM, true. But there is also a quality loss. Its not as bad as the analog method, and the quality loss doesn't matter if you were planning to reencode to a more open format anyway (I download unprotected radio4 programs in realaudio format, but always reencode to ogg for distribution so people dont need the spyware-filled realplayer.). But a decryption technique would still be tidier.

Audio can never be protected. The ease with which loopback recorders can be used and the negligable quality loss when its done properly makes DRM on audio unworkable. Video is another matter completly. Analog recorders do create a considerable quality loss unless you use very expensive equipment, and digital is out. Very strong resistance from the studios and broadcasters has kept unencrypted digital video out of the consumers hands. Althrough I expect to see more digital video technology in future, edventually reaching the point where video is digital from recording right until the TVs gun drivers, that data will be very well encrypted. 56 bit - breakable if you have a spare supercomputer, or for the commercial pirates who can afford to build $100,000 beowolf clusters, but well out of the average users capability. Much of that data will also be HDTV, so analog recording will greatly lower quality. Im relying on the complexity of the CPSA system to break video protection. With CSS, CPRM and CPPM storage protection, DTCP and HDCP transmission there must be a weak point in there somewhere. Sooner or later those keys will leak, and the revocation system, through more complex than that in CSS, can still only re-protect new content.

blah its all industry crap, if you buy it your promoting their control.

and after all that i didn't understand how to do it. my audio tool has an option which is called mixer but not "stereo mix" how do i know if this is the loop-back recording device? or if not what is the loop-back recording device?
Now lets say i did it. I have audiograbber. It doesn't seem to recognize anything played on my media player or winamp.
Help!

even if creative soundcards prevent loop backs, just use a dual end 1/8" audio cable and feed it from speaker output or line output to line input or the mic input and just hit record then. You still get a pretty nice sounding recording. As long as the signal is audio then you can't completely protect it.

I've been doing that for a few years with cakewalk pro audio , and i got it form a warez site so fuck the DRM and fuck the RIAA.
I don't think addiograbber will work.
But I'm sure that ANY soundcard will work unless your using windows 3.1 lol
long live indes!!!!!!!!!!

The method you've described here is actually analog loopback,and there's a very slight audio quality loss if you use this method. How big a loss that is depends on how good your sound card is. The loss happens because, in order to use this method, the sound signal has to be passed to the sound card, through its DAC (Digital-to-Analog Convertor), to the card's output channel, back into the card's input channel, through the card's ADC (Analog-to-Digital Convertor), and then back into you computer. Since the sound must breifly be transmitted in analog format, you incur a small signal loss. The loss is probably so small that no human ear could detect it, but if you're a perfectionist like me, you want to get it right.

There are ways to do completely digital loopback, and these ways are lossless. Some software can do it. Examples are: Total Record (Windows; $11.95), SoundFlower (Mac; free), and vsound (Linux, free). Just punch them into Google and you'll find their websites. Also, I wanted to buy a sound card that can do completely digital loopback, and I think I've found one. The Chaintech AV-710 and all other VIA Envy24-based sound cards claim to have this feature.

I don't know why those idiots like Napster and Rhapsody make us go to so much trouble just to get music which we are free to use. I don't want to resell my mp3's, I just want to burn them to a CD without having to pay a buck for each track! This DRM stuff is complete &$#%!