The cat-and-mouse game continues between Microsoft and a group of hackers intent on breaking the copy protection technology on its Windows Media files. This time, an individual has cracked the latest DRM scheme employed by Microsoft. The back and forth began last August when a Doom9 forum user by the name of "viodentia" released a program called FairUse4WM. The application was able to strip the copyright protection from both audio and video files, removing restrictions of where and when they could be played. Windows Media files could also then be converted into other formats as well.
Although many downplayed the potential risk of FairUse4WM due to the complexity involved in using the application, it still posed a major problem for Microsoft. Because its primary music offerings are subscription based unlike Apple"s iTunes, users could potentially download the entire music libraries offered by Napster or Yahoo and simply remove the DRM that makes the songs expire.