p2pnet - rss feed: FairUse4WM Take Down orders
p2pnet.net News:- “In practice it doesn’t actually mean that much.”
So said Jupiter Research’s Mark Mulligan in August, referring to FairUse4WM which, as we wrote at the time, “allows people to handily defeat” Microsoft’s Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology”.
The thrust was the fact Microsoft chose to pay any attention at all meant FairUse4WM was considerably more than merely a minor irritation, and, “We have an update to address the circumvention and are working with our partners to deploy this solution,” InformationWeek had Marcus Matthias, senior product manager for the Windows Client Division, as saying.
Injured partners include, “providers of music and video that depend on Microsoft’s digital rights management technology to prevent illegal copying of their content,” said the story, and now Bill and the Boyz are sending out cease and desist orders to web sites hosting the FairUse4WM program, says Ars Technica, going on:
“According to the owner of the web site BG4G, the orders came in via e-mail. The notices are of a standard boilerplate format, claiming that the sites are ‘offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft.’ The copyrighted works are Windows Media Player 10 and 11, and the unauthorized activities are listed as ‘offering ‘Cracks’ or ‘Product Keys’, intended to circumvent technical measures that control access to Microsoft’s copyrighted works and that protect Microsoft’s copyrights in those works’.”
Apparently, behind the take downs is “Internet Investigator” James Young, “who claims to be acting on behalf of Microsoft Corporation,” says the story, gong on:
“The interesting thing about the e-mail is that it makes no mention of the DMCA, which is the one law that would make FairUse4WM (which does not contain any copyrighted code, portions of Windows Media Player, nor any copyrighted music files themselves) illegal. The DMCA contains provisions against programs that attempt to circumvent copy protection. It also provides a ’safe harbor’ for Internet Service Providers and web hosts that take down files in a certain amount of time (usually 10 to 14 days) after a warning letter has been received.”
Also See:
handily defeat - Microsoft vs FairUse4WM, August 31, 2006
InformationWeek - Microsoft Readies Fix For DRM Hack, August 30, 2006
Ars Technica - Microsoft tells web site owners to take down FairUse4WM, September 17, 2006
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