Pixel Dragon

Okay, so the story starts with my mentioning that the new Guild Wars expansion Eye of the North is out and I suddenly figure on a game we can play together as we haven’t done so in a while. Getting to the installing and downloading patches and I of course want my extra musics I paid for some time ago from the genius at soundtracks Jeremy Soule.

Problem is, DirectSong employs DRM through wma. And of course I quickly run out of licenses, I’d already requested more licenses before, and only had rental licenses left, no fear, I’ve already stripped the DRM before, I just have to download the packs and keep the essential .DLLs for the music to work in-game and overwrite with my NoDRM versions (I’d hoped).

But drats, I realise the new files are bigger, he’d upgraded them ALL to 320kbps, gotta love him, but hate him too as I want these versions now, which means one thing… getting licenses and stripping them.

Stripping them is easy thanks to a handy app called FairUse4WM. Which means you can take the protection off if you actually have a license for the content by simply decrypting using the keys in the licenses and leaving you with the same file, minus the DRM.

Now here’s the fun part of the story, IT TOOK ME 4 HOURS TO GET DRM WORKING ON MY MACHINE. MS havedecided they want to force people to Windows Media Player 11 by not letting WMP10 to validate the security updates needed to license my files. So while I figure this out, find a way of installing WMP11 without Windows Genuine Advantage, install the update, reboot my system 5 times and then roll back the HARD way

C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallwmp11$\spuninst\spuninst.exe

I finally found I couldn’t restore licenses I hadn’t backed up, so had to download the rental ones just for the purpose of LISTENING TO MUSIC I PAID FOR.

Downloaded the license for one pak and found that DRM refused to license my second pack, I had to restart Windows Media Player for it to allow me to license the second pack. So many bugs, and so much time wasted. By that point I checked every file I stripped, so I wouldn’t have to go through that process again.

[thumb:176:c:l=f]

Jeremy Soule, you are a musicianal GENIUS. But DRM is dead, wake up. Find an alternative. I’m not gonna hand out stuff I PAID FOR, and it hasn’t stopped other people from doing so, so please stop punishing me ;_;

Oh and non-DRM files work with the directsong stuff too. So I have my music working ingame in yummy 320kbps goodness. Many people say that they can’t hear the difference at 128kbps, but I can. At 320kbps it’s like the music is having sex with my ears! (*ahem*).