Removing DRM from Songs!

Please do not copy this tutorial elsewhere. Instead link to this thread!
http://www.villavu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27082?

This tutorial will NOT work with Vista SP1 or XP SP3. The reason for that is because the IBX version is updated in both the Vista SP1 and XP SP3 updates.

The only workaround (that I know of) to the above warning, is to create a Virtual Machine (VM), and download your songs on that VM. Then, follow my steps on the VM, and later move the DRM-Free songs from your VM to your main computer.

Why would anybody need this?
If you have any legit music downloading programs (Napster, Ruckus, Zunes software, etc...), and you try putting the songs you downloaded onto your iPod, or burning it onto a CD, it won't let you! It's because it is DRM Protected...

With this tutorial, you will be able put all your songs on your iPod and whatever else you wanted to do but it wouldn't let you! This is a lossless conversion.

Here are some simple steps I created (with pictures!) to help you strip that DRM off your music! Using this method takes about 1.5 seconds per song.
This works with any edition of Windows Vista, and Windows XP. It may work with other operating systems.

Works with IBX 11.0.6000.7000, and latest version of Windows Media Player (WMP).

So, let's begin.

1) Download this file, and extract the contents into a new folder, wherever you want. (Use WinRar to extract)

File to download:
http://mgatesphoto.com/cgi-bin/download/down.pl?ID=1

You should have this when extracted:
http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/downloaded.jpg

2) Move all of your music files into the DRM2 folder. Make sure you move the actual music files, not a folder containing the files.

It should look like this (with different songs):

http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/movemusic.jpg

3) Now open drmdbg.exe, and wait for it to load. Windows Media Player should automatically open up...Just leave it open. If you try to close it, it will open back up.

Make your settings look like mine:

• Uncheck Top Window
• Check DRM2 Dir
• Check Sub Dir Scan

Your WMV DIR, DRM2 DIR and the top box might look different than how it is in the picture.

http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/settings.jpg

4) Click on Multi Scan. Two things will happen now...

First, the drmdbg window will change, with the songs directory in it.

Drmdbg will look like this:

http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/playingdrm.jpg

Second, Windows Media Player will start playing a song it found in your DRM2 folder.

Go to WMP and click on the Now Playing button:

http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/nowplaying.jpg

5) Next, right click on your song (for me, it's Iron Man) in the List Pane to the right of the WMP window, and click on Properties.

Then, click on Media Usage Rights.

http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/prop.jpg

6) Soon as you click on Media Usage Rights, a new song starts playing. From here, you close the properties box, click on Multi Scan again, and repeat step FIVE.

If you moved more than one song into the DRM2 dir at the beginning of the tutorial, then it should go to the next song.

When you get to the last song, after you click Media Usage Rights, the song does not change, nothing happens infact. But, it did record the info you needed. So continue onto step 7.

7) After you have finished Step 6 for all songs, close drmdbg (WMP should close too) and open your DRM2 folder.

8) Drag all your songs onto fm2helper.exe

A black box should appear, with either a progrees bar, or an error.

If it says "NO ENABLINGBITS element in license!", this means you did not do step 6. Or, it did not work...Which it should.

http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/enabling.jpg

If it has a progress bar, it worked! It should reach 100% fairly quickly.

http://mgatesphoto.com/drm/done.jpg

9) Once it has finished converting all of them, you should get them all outputed as Freed-[SongNameEtcHere].

Done! :)

Bugs:

I'm not sure why, but sometimes when you go to Media Usage Rights, the song doesn't switch, and the box in drmdbg does not fill in. Nothing happens, sometimes.

To fix this:
I found that if you move the song it gets stuck on out of the DRM2 folder, and into the DRM_Removal! folder (next to drmdbg.exe), and hit MultiScan, then it seems to work.

Having Trouble?

Post your error, comment, concern or trouble, and I'll be sure to get back to you.

Reserved.

Nice job Swift. I'll definitely try this because all the CDs I bought in the last 4 years or 5 years have this really annoying DRM. It will let me make copies of the songs but the song's speed is increased exponentially and all my music sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was so annoying that even though I had bought the CDs, I had to resort to downloading music off of Limewire.

I consider that legal because I bought the CDs. :P :)

Nice tut Swift!

Thanks for the replies. Hope you try it successfully, RAM =]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Swift

Thanks for the replies. Hope you try it successfully, RAM =]

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He is Ron, not RAM :p

i like the tut but it might be a little complex for some, cant we just get the music illegally like normal people?:confused:

Yes, I suppose you can. But, there are lots of fakes and trojans pact with those songs you want to download off of limewire, or from wherever.

I guess this tutorial was made for the advanced, then.

Hmm... Whoever made that is going to get his ass kicked by the law soon.

http://tunebite.com/en/remove_drm/index.html

Tunebite Platinum

Quote:

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Legally remove DRM copy protection from music, audio books and videos. Universal converter with support for over 50 audio and video formats. The conversion maestro with support for customizable output profiles. Automatic, multi-speed copying and conversion in digital quality, with support for all of today’s standard audio, video and DRM formats.

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Alot easier just to run a GUI app.

Now you just need to "legally" download it ;)

great tutorial, F*** the RIAA and Apple
Keep the music free! I just love buying something from iTunes and not being able to use it on anything else other than my iPod. what a freaking rippoff. Thanks for this!

Tunebite takes the whole length of the song to remove the DRM. So, if a song is 2 minutes, it'll take 2 minutes for one song.

Seems to be a bit of a convoluted way of doing things.. Why bother removing DRM when it is so easy to get everything DRM free in the first place anyway..

Hm that's a lot of views on this thread :p.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Swift

Hm that's a lot of views on this thread :p.

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Google bot ftw?

Not a bad tut. Seems cumbersome clicking media usage over and over.

I've got my own ways. Might use it someday.

Hm, it doesn't seem to work for me at all. DRMDBG does not open up WMP, and if I open it with WMP closed I get multiple errors; if I open it with WMP open, it will try to "take over" WMP, but you can no longer interact with it. Any ideas?

Why not just get files that don't have DRM in the first place? :p

Because people think they get in less trouble for doing this?

Just use torrents with encryption or directish download passworded archives ;)

Because everyone in the world wants to have a solution for the songs they purchased or downloaded that has DRM.

well...as true as that may be, for those of use who obtain media legally, isn't ok to make backups and copies for usrself as long as you dont redistribute them??? so just buy it...and then get it from a torrent or youtube or your own little place...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chitin

well...as true as that may be, for those of use who obtain media legally, isn't ok to make backups and copies for usrself as long as you dont redistribute them??? so just buy it...and then get it from a torrent or youtube or your own little place...

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If you bought it, you might as well save yourself the trouble of finding it on a torrent website; simply follow this tutorial.

When I start drmdbg, I see nothing in the box that should say where the .key file is located. The file does exist though, I checked the path that appeared in the example box and it's there. I click Multi-Scan and WMP starts playing it like it should, but when I go to the song properties it says "This file is missing media usage rights," however if I start WMP normally and play the song and look at the usage rights, it shows me the information that should appear.

I'm using the latest WMP and Vista SP1, any tips?

That's interesting. It must be something with SP1 because I don't have SP1 installed and I can successfully remove the DRM.

Try redownloading the song? It may work...Is it just that one song that doesn't work?

Wow, 7k+ views :)

Nope, none of the songs work. I did a little digging and I think I found the problem. Upgrading to SP1 changes your IBX version to 11.0.6001.7000. That extra 1 seems to be what's messing everything up. Hopefully the writers of this program can address that soon. Tunebite's ok, but I mean why have lossy conversion when you don't have to?

Oh, bummer. Looks like I won't be upgrading until an update for this software is out :p.

Do you notice any big changes in SP1?

Not really. The system boots a little faster which may or may not have anything to do with it, but it's definitely not worth losing the ability to remove DRM. Oh well, I guess I'll have to stick with tunebite for a little while longer.

The most surprising thing about this is that no one seems to know about it yet. I've found mention of the new IBX on some japanese sites, but that's about it. All those sites seem to say according to the questionable google translation is that no one knows what to do about it yet.

Spread the word to all your hacker friends.

Think you could go to your IBX version window and take a screenshot, then post that here? That would be great... :) Would help spread the word

I'll add that to my first post, thanks.

Sure, here you go.

Since vista won't let me check my IBX version using the method I've been able to find (under the properties of indiv01.key I get no "version" tab), instead I found what I think are dll files relating drm that share the IBX version. I could be wrong though.

great tut dude

Swift, at the risk of sounding ignorant, I'm having trouble dragging the files to "fm2helper.exe." it gives my a red arrow. Everything before this problem goes very smoothly - please help!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by abbmike77

Swift, at the risk of sounding ignorant, I'm having trouble dragging the files to "fm2helper.exe." it gives my a red arrow. Everything before this problem goes very smoothly - please help!

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Interesting...I've never come across this problem. It most likely has to do with your Administration settings. Not enough privileges or something like that.

You will have to play around in Control Panel under User Accounts (for Vista, that is what it's called, not sure about XP).

Are you doing these steps on your own computer?
Do you know for a fact if you are logged in as an administrator?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phiqtion

I was recently using your tutorials to remove the DRM content until i updated to the new Zune 2.5 software and SP3. Maybe the IBX was updated or something, however i can run a WINXP SP2 virtually to continue using this hack, what should i do?

whenever i try doing the process it now says something about STRINGS? i forgot... and i installed a fresh SP2 virtually and when i try playing the file DRMed it says to update then the ZUNE message comes out saying my song expired. please download the zune prog.

any thoughts? what can i do to continue stripping DRM? thanks

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Are you downloading the songs you want to remove the DRM off of, on your main computer? So the computer with Windows SP3 and the new Zune 2.5?

Were you trying to move the songs you downloaded from your main computer to the virtual computer that has Windows XP (SP2 you said?) installed on it?

Yes, the IBX does update when you update your Windows SP3. It updates with the Vista SP1 update too.

All you can do right now is install Zune 2.5 (I don't think Zune is what's affecting your ability to remove DRM) on your VM (Virtual Machine), and download songs off of your VM to your VM's desktop. From there, execute the DRM Removal instructions.

When you finished removing the DRM on the songs which are stored your VM, move the songs back to your main computer. You can do this by creating a "Shared Folder" and going to My Computer on your VM, then to the shared folder's drive, and dragging the songs from your desktop (or wherever it downloaded) to the shared folder drive.

Hopefully you haven't installed any Windows Updates on your VM that can interfere with removing DRM. I can't tell you which updates interfere with it, sorry...I myself don't know.

[QUOTE=Swift;399020]Interesting...I've never come across this problem. It most likely has to do with your Administration settings. Not enough privileges or something like that.

You will have to play around in Control Panel under User Accounts (for Vista, that is what it's called, not sure about XP).

Are you doing these steps on your own computer?
Do you know for a fact if you are logged in as an administrator?




Yes, I am using this off my own personal laptop. BUT, all the files are saved on my portable Hard-drive - would that have anything to do with it?

Yes, on my computer I'm, 100%, an admin.

Well, if you try and move the files off your portable hard-drive onto your main drive (just one or two songs) and test it that way.

If it works, then yes, that was your problem.

Here's another program that will do the same thing for you, it's made by DVD- jon, the guy that cracked the DVD copy protection.

http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Home/Index.dt

Haven't tried it but I trust that it works.

Thanks :o

Worked for me, great tut

OK, I prefer use a software to crack those annoying DRM.

As I'm using one of these program. It's called Daninusoft Media Converter Pro And the newest version has modified its two major disadvantages compare with the former one: 1. Be compatible with Vista OS. 2. Supports all iTunes DRM files.

And with its original advantages:
1. Supports Windows Media DRM files (WMV, WMA).
2. High conversion speed.
3. Supports many other popular standard video and audio files.
4. Friendly-use interface.
It could be a good choice for DRM remove and Media conversion.

http://www.wmatomp3-converter.com/im...dia-pro-sc.jpg

Nice, thanks. How long does it take for one song?

I finally knew how to remove this annoying DRM from the songs.

Thank you very very much :)

hi there this is really a very useful tool to remove DRM from the songs. but plz tell me is there any tool for older version like SP2. thanx appreciated